Koorikage
by illjwamh
Summary: Three years after Sasuke's betrayal, a new variable appears: the shinobi from the Hidden Snow are formidable, but what is their goal? Should they be considered a threat? Diverges from the manga before VotE, and has nothing to do with the first movie.
1. Prologue: Sasuke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other characters and places from Kishimoto Masashi's manga series. I do own the people and places that I made up for this story, even though they were based on Kishimoto-sama's models. I don't plan on making any money off of them anyway. This will serve as my disclaimer for the whole story, so I don't have to write a new one for every chapter.

Author's Notes: This is my first Naruto fic. It's hard to write fiction for a series that isn't finished yet, but it seems to work for the Harry Potter fans, so what the hell, eh? At the time I started writing this, the latest chapter of the manga to be released was 212. So obviously this is going to conflict with canon events that will inevitably take place after that. That's the way it goes in this business.

Well then, on with the prologue!

     Sakura ran. She'd been there when the messengers arrived to tell Tsunade-sama that three ninjas fitting the description of Nara Shikamaru and those two sand nins, Kankuro and Temari, had arrived at the gate with an indeterminate number of others who were either unconscious or dead, requesting to be let in.

     _"Maybe Naruto is with them!"_ Sakura thought as she ran still faster, keeping pace with the Hokage who was probably allowing her to do so. _"I hope he has Sasuke-kun with him!"_

She stopped when they reached the village gate, and Tsunade-sama ordered the guards to open it. On the other side stood the three aforementioned ninjas, looking pretty put out.

     "It's about time," Kankuro said. "Is this how you treat your wounded comrades around here when they get back from a mission?"

     "I ordered them to inform me the moment you returned, and not to let you in until I arrived," Tsunade-sama explained. "It was for security reasons that cannot be explained at present."

     "In any case, you might want to get a doctor or something," Temari said. "These three are hurt pretty badly." She was referring to Neji, whom she had draped over her shoulder, Kiba, who was carried by Kankuro, and Chouji, who was carried by Shikamaru. The three conscious ninja didn't look like they were in very good shape either, especially Shikamaru.

     "Where's Naruto?" asked Sakura. The hope she'd felt a moment ago was quickly being replaced by panic. Had Naruto not made it? And that would mean that Sasuke-kun was lost as well…

     "He went after Sasuke," Shikamaru explained, handing Chouji over to one of the guards.

     "Gaara went to help him," Kankuro added, as he and Temari handed over their burdens as well. The guards quickly departed with their charges for the hospital.

     "Gaara!?" Sakura asked, not consoled in the least. "You mean…?"

     "It's all right, Sakura-chan," Tsunade-sama said, resting a hand on the young girls shoulder. "I asked the three of them to help Shikamaru's team. Gaara will be of great help to Naruto, I assure you."

     Sakura wasn't convinced, but she wasn't about to argue with Hokage-sama. Then another thought struck her.

     "What about Lee-san? He left his hospital room without telling anyone! Did he go after you?"

     Kankuro shrugged. "I didn't see him. He might have met up with Gaara and your little hyper friend."

     The fact that Gaara and Lee might have encountered each other only served to make Sakura even more uneasy.

     "Hey, can we come in already?" Shikamaru asked. "We may still be walking, but we fought pretty hard as well, you know. As long as those guys are going to live, right now I want to go sleep for about a day."

     "They will live," Tsunade-sama assured him. "It will take some time for them to recover fully, but they will live; I will see to that. The three of you may go rest. I recommend spending the night in the hospital."

     "Yeah, whatever," Kankuro said. He brushed past Sakura and headed into the village, Temari following soon after. Shikamaru stopped on his way past and turned to speak to her.

     "Naruto'll bring Sasuke back," he said. "That guy doesn't know how to be defeated."

     "Arigatou…Shikamaru-kun," was all she could say, but he'd already continued walking away.

     "I need to post some more guards here," Tsunade-sama murmured to herself. Sakura got an idea.

     "Ano…Hokage-sama?" She asked, sounding a lot more like Hinata than herself. "Would it be all right if I was one of the guards? I'd like to be here the moment Naruto and Sasuke-kun come back."

*          *            *

     Tsunade regarded the young girl for a moment before smiling. Putting a genin on guard duty wasn't exactly the best idea even under normal circumstances, but in this case she figured she could make an exception. She'd just send a skilled jounin along to balance things out.

     "I think that will be all right," she said. Sakura beamed. "I'll send someone out to join you immediately."

     "Arigatou gozaimasu, Hokage-sama," the young girl said, bowing deeply. She then leapt up to the guard post on the wall, and Tsunade set off to acquire her companion. She knew just the one: someone who'd want to wait there just as much as Sakura did.

*          *            *

     Sakura had been alone for almost five minutes without incident when she heard her companion arrive. She looked up, and was surprised at the person Tsunade-sama had sent to join her.

     "Gai-sensei!" she exclaimed. "You're working guard duty?"

     "I want to be here the moment Lee-kun returns," the jounin said. "Besides, guard duty under these circumstances would easily be equal to a B-rank mission. It's not best to leave a genin to the task without strong support, and Hokage-sama realized how important it is for you to be here as well." He flashed her his infamous grin. In truth, she was glad someone like Gai-sensei was there, in case there was trouble.

*          *            *

     Five hours had gone by, and Sakura's eyelids were getting heavy. Still, she refused to fall asleep. She was determined to be present and awake when Naruto returned with Sasuke-kun, and she also didn't want to disappoint Tsunade-sama and Gai-sensei by falling asleep on guard duty.

     The sun was due to rise soon, and the beginnings of dawn's first light had begun the approach over the horizon. She looked into the distance, hoping the faint light might stimulate her into a state of more alertness. As she did so, she thought she saw something against the din of the horizon. She squinted to see, but it was difficult to make out.

     "Gai-sensei," she called the older ninja's attention. "Do you see that out there?" She pointed in the direction of the object. Gai-sensei placed his hands over his eyes and squinted.

     "I see it, but what is it?" he said. Sakura returned her gaze to the distant object. It seemed to be drawing nearer.

     The two of them stood like that for several minutes, and the object was indeed getting closer. Recognition hit Sakura as the silhouette became big enough to distinguish.

     "It's a person!" she squealed excitedly.

     "No, several people," Gai-sensei said from next to her. "I can't make out who they are yet, though." They continued waiting for a few more minutes, until the sun rose enough for a small amount of light to gleam off one of the faces. In the distance, she could make out blonde hair, and a face that was obviously weary, but grinning nonetheless. He had a large load on his back, and he was waving. It seemed he could see her much more clearly that she could see him.

     "Naruto!" she cheered fervently. She jumped from the high wall all the way to the ground and landed nimbly with strength and grace she was not even aware she had. Behind her, she could faintly hear Gai-sensei chuckling as she leapt.

     The second she hit the ground, she ran toward her teammate. There was another person walking next to him, who also had a large load on his back. When she got closer, it became clear whom that other person was. Sakura gasped as she realized it was none other than Gaara of the sand, walking side by side with Naruto, and the load on his back was Lee-san!

     Did that mean…she had to run a little closer to see…Naruto's load…it was Sasuke-kun! He'd done it! He'd brought Sasuke-kun back!

     "Sakura-chan!" Naruto was calling as he waved. She was within earshot now.

     "Naruto!" she yelled happily. It took another twenty seconds or so to reach him and as soon as she did, she plowed into him and hugged him.

     "Ow! Easy, Sakura-chan!" 

     She realized her mistake. He and Gaara had been traveling at a fairly slow pace, which meant he was either extremely worn out, badly injured…or both.

     "Gomen…" she said timidly as she pulled away.

     "Nah, it's all right. Good to see you too, Sakura-chan," he said while scratching the back of his head with his free hand. This brought Sakura's attention back to the young ninja he had draped over his shoulder.

     "You brought him back," she said simply. "Arigatou, Naruto."

     "Well, he wasn't too happy about it," Naruto said. "It took everything I had to bring him down."

     "Bring him…down? You mean he fought you?" She looked at Sasuke, who was more beat-up than Naruto. The fact that he was also unconscious should have tipped her off, the back of her mind quipped.

     "Like an animal," Naruto said. "That curse mark or whatever it is that those sound ninjas had…well, Sasuke has one too. It makes them really strong. It's a good thing Lee and Gaara came along and took care of that bone guy for me or I wouldn't have been in good enough shape to fight him."

     Sakura looked over to Gaara, who had remained absolutely silent through the whole exchange. He simply watched their conversation, as if waiting patiently for them to start walking again so he could join them. Also, the look in his eyes was…different from what she remembered of him. She felt compelled to thank him.

     "Arigatou, Gaara-san," she offered a small bow as well.

     "Hmm," was his reply.

     "He's not a big talker," Naruto chuckled. "Let's get back to Tsunade-baba right away. I want her to take Sasuke. I don't know if that curse seal will refill his chakura, but I know he's gonna try to escape as soon as he wakes up. I don't think I could fight him again."

     This news surprised Sakura. Did Sasuke-kun want away from them so badly? Was it something she had done? Or something she hadn't done? She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice when Naruto and Gaara started walking again.

     "Hey, Sakura-chan, come on!" Naruto called. She shook her head to clear it and jogged to catch up with them.

     "I can take Sasuke-kun if you're tired, Naruto," she asked.

     "Nah, I've carried him this far. Besides, he's helping me keep my balance. Hehe." Sakura couldn't help but giggle.

     When they got back to the gate, Gai-sensei took Lee-san and Sasuke-kun from Naruto and Gaara, and Naruto did indeed fall over. Sakura took his arm and supported him as he walked.

     "Arigatou, Sakura-chan," Naruto managed. It seemed that now that he'd reached the village, every bit of his energy was gone and it was difficult for him to walk or talk at all.

     Gai-sensei had taken Lee-san and Sasuke-kun directly to Tsunade-sama, and two chuunin had already been present to take the next guard shift. Sakura took Naruto to the Konoha hospital, and Gaara walked along next to them silently.

     As soon as they arrived, Naruto was checked into a room and Sakura bid him farewell, thanking him with another hug before she left. Gaara had no place to stay, so he went to the room his siblings were in. Sakura then left the hospital and headed to Tsunade-sama's office, hoping to see Sasuke-kun and Lee-san. However, when she arrived she was told that no one was allowed to see them just yet. After a brief protest, Sakura was sent away, and decided the best thing to do was go home and get some sleep. She had been up all night.

*          *            *

     The next day, Sakura was once again told she was not allowed to see Sasuke-kun, but was informed that Lee-san had been sent to his old room at the hospital and that he would be fine in a day or so. So she decided to go and visit him as well as Naruto. She stopped by Ino's flower shop first.

     "What happened?" Ino asked her as soon as she stepped in to the shop. "I go on one C-rank mission by myself and come back to be told the rest of my team is in the hospital. Is it true?

     "Yes, it's true," Sakura said to her. "Sasuke-kun tried to run away, and Shikamaru-kun was put in charge of a team to get him back."

     "Shikamaru leading a mission?" Ino sounded shocked. "Wow, I never thought I'd hear those words." She chuckled for a moment, and then something struck her. "Wait…did you say Sasuke-kun tried to run away?" Sakura nodded. "Why would he do that?"

     "It's a long story," Sakura said, not really wanting to go into it. "Anyway, they managed to bring him back, but it was tough. Shikamaru-kun, Kiba-kun, Neji-senpai, Chouji-kun, Lee-san and Naruto are all in the hospital."

     "All of them?" Ino was amazed. "What about Sasuke-kun?"

     "He's with Tsunade-sama," Sakura said. "Naruto had to beat him up pretty bad, and they're also afraid he may try to run away again."

     Ino was silent for a moment as she took this all in. Then she asked Sakura a question that should have been obvious…at least Sakura felt so.

     "So what are you doing here?"

     "I came for flowers, what else?" Sakura answered, keeping any trace of annoyance from her voice. She was too relieved that everyone had come back safely to feel malice of any kind towards anyone. "I'm going to visit Naruto and Lee-san in the hospital."

     "I'll come with you," Ino said. "I should go see Shikamaru and Chouji after all." She handed Sakura two daffodils, which she knew the pink-haired girl loved to bring to friends in the hospital, and picked up two of her own, thinking they weren't at all a bad choice. "On the house," she said.

     "Oh, we should bring one each for Neji-senpai and Kiba-kun as well," Sakura said. "I'd feel bad if we went to visit everyone except them. Naruto told me Neji almost died to protect the rest of them, and when I saw Kiba-kun the other night it looked like he almost did, too."

     "You're right," Ino said, smiling. She picked up two more flowers and then called to her mother, saying she was going out.

*          *            *

     When the girls got to the hospital, they decided to visit Neji first, and that way neither could complain that the other was trying to play favorites to her own teammates. When they arrived, they found the young Hyuuga prodigy sleeping peacefully with a massive bandage over his left shoulder and another one on the right side of his stomach. He looked in pretty poor shape.

     "They say that if he had gone even another half hour without treatment he would've died," the girls heard a voice from behind them and turned to see Neji-senpai's teammate Tenten standing in the doorway.

     "Was it really that bad?" Ino asked. The older girl nodded.

     "He was stabbed several times in the back, and punctured all the way through on his shoulder and the side of his stomach. It'll be almost a year before he heals completely, if at all." Tenten's voice had a tinge of sadness to it that she did not attempt to hide.

     "I'm so sorry," Sakura offered.

     "Don't be," Tenten said. "It was a mission. Neji knows the risks as well as the rest of us. Besides, the mission was accomplished and nobody died, right?" She managed a small smile.

     "I guess you're right," Sakura agreed. "And just so you know, Naruto said that Neji-senpai and Lee-san really saved them." 

     This seemed to cheer Tenten up considerably. "Really?"

     Sakura smiled and nodded.

     "We were going to visit Lee-san next," Ino said. "Would you like to come with us? He's on your team too, right?"

     "Tenten smiled brightly this time. "Yes, I'd like that."

     The girls left a flower in Neji's room and trekked over to Lee's room. They found him doing sit-ups on the floor in his hospital gown.

     "Lee-san!" Sakura exclaimed. "You're supposed to be resting!"

     He seemed shocked to see them and actually stopped halfway through a sit-up.

     "Sakura-san! Ino-san! Tenten! What are you doing here?"

     "We came to visit you, you dork," Tenten teased him.

     "I take it you're feeling better, Lee-san?" Ino asked somewhat sarcastically.

     "Of course! Besides, I can't afford to lapse in my training, especially now that I've regained my arm and my leg!" He went back to his sit-ups. "506! 507! 508!"

     "We'll leave this here, Lee-san," Sakura said, placing one of the flowers in a vase on the small table next to his hospital bed. "We're going to go visit Naruto now."

     "Is Naruto-kun all right?" Lee asked, pausing in his sit-ups again.

     "Yes, he's fine, Lee-san. Just a little bruised and tired is all."

     Lee grinned. "Ah, good. Naruto-kun always recovers quickly, too." He resumed his sit-ups once more.

     "I think I'm going to stay here for a while, and then go visit Neji again later," Tenten said.

     "Okay," Sakura said. She and Ino headed towards the door. "Good bye, Tenten-san. Goodbye, Lee-san."

     When they entered Naruto's room, they found him with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. 

     "Ohayou, Naruto!" Sakura greeted brightly. He instantly sat up.

     "Sakura-chan!" Then he noticed Ino as well. "Ino?"

     "What?" Ino mockingly challenged. "I'm not allowed to visit you?"

     "No, I didn't mean that…"

     Sakura cut him off. "How are you feeling, Naruto?"

     "Huh? Oh, I feel fine. But they won't let me leave!" he complained. Sakura and Ino sweatdropped. Lee-san was right; he did recover quickly.

     "Um, we brought this for you," Sakura said, placing the flower in a vase as she had done in Neji's room and Lee's room. Naruto's eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe someone was bringing him a gift of any kind.

     "Sakura-chan…" he whimpered, tears forming in his eyes. Sakura sweatdropped again. Behind her she could hear Ino chuckling.

     "Um, we were going to go visit Shikamaru-kun next," Sakura informed him, feeling awkward for some reason. "Did you want to come?"

     "Sure!" he cheered, jumping up out of his bed. "Anything to get out of this room!"

     "Well let's go then, you nuisance," she said. It was something that she used to use against him as an insult, but now it was just friendly and playful. She didn't really know when that change had taken place.

     On the walk to Shikamaru's room, Naruto asked what had been done with Sasuke.

     "Hokage-sama has him somewhere," Sakura said. "She was just as worried as you about him running away again."

     "Okay, hold on a minute," Ino said, causing the other two to stop in their tracks in the hall. "What exactly is going on here? Why did Sasuke-kun run away in the first place? And why's everyone making such a huge deal out of it?"

     Sakura hesitated, not knowing if she should tell her friend-turned-rival the true story. She didn't have to make the decision though, as Naruto did it for her.

     "He has some kind of curse seal," Naruto explained. "The sound nins we fought to get to him had the same thing. He got it from that Orochimaru guy."

     "Orochimaru?" Ino asked, stunned. "You mean one of the legendary sannin, and the one who attacked the village and killed Sandaime-sama?"

     Naruto nodded. "That's him all right. I don't know when he gave Sasuke the seal, but…"

     "During the second test."

     Naruto and Ino looked at Sakura, who had her head hung low.

     "Sakura-chan?" Naruto was clearly confused.

     "He got it during the second test of the chuunin exams. Don't you remember, Naruto? When we fought those huge snakes?"

     "That was Orochimaru!?"

     Sakura nodded. "You were already knocked out when it happened," she explained. "It was after you saved us from him and saved Sasuke-kun from that huge snake. He bit Sasuke-kun on the neck and gave him that curse seal, saying Sasuke-kun would seek him out for power. Then Sasuke-kun made me promise not to tell you about it so you wouldn't worry."

     She could see in Naruto's eyes that he was putting the pieces together. Ino too had a look of realization on her face.

     "So that's why Sasuke-kun was so strong when he fought those sound nins, and why he was acting so strange."

     "Hai."

     "I didn't know he'd had it for that long," Naruto said, more to himself than to anyone else. "Sasuke, you bastard."

     "What's wrong, Naruto?" Sakura asked. "Are you mad because I didn't tell you? Sasuke-kun made me promise…"

     "I'm mad at him!" Naruto shouted, causing both girls to jump a little bit. "I'm mad at him for not telling me! I'm mad at him for making you promise not to tell me! And I'm mad at him because that means he knew exactly what he was doing when he ran off with those sound nins!"

     The girls were taken aback.

     "What do you mean?" Ino asked. It was the same thing Sakura had been about to say.

     "When I was chasing him, and then when I caught him, I thought those sound nins had tricked him into going with them. I thought they hadn't told him the whole truth, and that he had no idea Orochimaru was involved." Naruto was fuming now. "I thought he only _really_ turned against me once the curse seal had grown to its full strength and he didn't have control anymore. But the bastard knew exactly what was going on the whole time. He knew what was going to happen right from the start, before those sound ninjas even showed up."

*FLASHBACK*

     "I finally caught you," Naruto declared proudly as he dropped down from a tree directly in Sasuke's path.

     "Get away from here," Sasuke said coldly, "or I'll kill you."

     This left Naruto a little confused. "What are you talking about? I'm here to bring you back to the village. We beat those sound guys, and the least you can do is say thank you. Besides, I promised Sakura-chan that I'd bring you back, so I'm not leaving without you."

     "Heh." Sasuke's face remained cold, and the grin that appeared on his face was very unsettling. "Don't you get it, dobe-kun? I'm not going back. So get out of my way now if you want to live."

     "What?" Naruto wasn't understanding Sasuke's behavior at all. He was acting even stranger than usual. "Come on, Sasuke, this isn't funny anymore. Quit fooling around and let's go home before more of those sound guys show up." He reached for Sasuke's arm, but before he could get a hold of it, Sasuke whipped to the side and punched him in the face, sending him tumbling backward.

     "Ow!" Naruto complained as he stood up, rubbing his face. "Sasuke, you jackass! What was that for?"

     "I told you; I'm not going back. Now get out of here or I really will have to kill you." The look in his eyes told Naruto that he was absolutely serious.

     "What's gotten into you?" Naruto demanded of his now former teammate.

     "I've told you before, I'm an avenger," Sasuke said. "It doesn't matter what happens to me, so long as my mission is accomplished. I will do whatever I have to do to obtain the power to complete that mission of revenge. It's none of your business."

     "The hell it isn't!" Naruto shot back. "What about Sakura-chan? She cares about you a lot, and more than you deserve! And you just toss her aside like you do to everybody! And what about me? And Kakashi-sensei? What about fuzzy eyebrows, who always wanted to fight us and now he finally has a chance to again? What about all the people who came after you, some of whom might have even died by now, all because we were trying to save you? Does nobody matter to you at all? Is your stupid brother all that you can think about?"

     Sasuke's face contorted in anger. "Shut up! What would you know about it? You've never had to live your life hating somebody, wanting to kill them with every fiber in your body! You've never had to deal with the fact that no matter what you do, you'll never have enough power to defeat them! Well now I have that power, and there's nothing you or anybody else can ever say that will make me give it up! I live only to kill my brother, and all means to that end are worth anything. I didn't want to have to kill you, but since you won't leave it looks like I don't have a choice. Sharingan!" The extra pupils appeared and Sasuke's eyes turned red. Naruto knew that he'd have to fight it out. But he couldn't afford to have Sasuke's Sharingan copy his best techniques. He needed a plan.

     Unfortunately, he had no time to come up with one, as Sasuke was charging him. At the last second, he kicked up dirt with his foot and it hit Sasuke square in the eyes. The punch still connected, as he knew it would, but he'd rather take a hit than have Sasuke copy his best technique.

     He rolled quickly and stood up, looking to make sure Sasuke was still rubbing the dirt from his eyes.

     "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He created fifty clones; he wasn't sure if he'd have a chance to create any more, and he had to go for broke.

     "You're kidding, right?" Sasuke sneered as he recovered from Naruto's previous attack. "I can tell which is the real you, you know. That was a nice trick, by the way; making it so I couldn't see you perform your jutsu. You're smarter than I expected."

     "Hmph," Naruto responded. "Even if you can tell which one is the real me, big deal. You still have to fight all of us!" With that, all fifty clones as well as the original rushed at Sasuke. Sasuke's taijutsu skills were slightly better than those of Naruto, but with such a difference in numbers that didn't really make a difference.

     Sasuke managed to fight off several of the clones, but they were quickly getting the better of him. That is, until strange black marking started spreading from his left shoulder across the rest of his body.

     "What the…" Naruto said as the black marks spread and Sasuke gained a great amount of speed and power, dispelling Naruto's clones a half dozen at a time.

     "This is the power I told you about, Dobe-kun," Sasuke said triumphantly after he'd defeated the last clone. "With this, I can easily defeat you, and then I can finally kill my brother as well."

     "Heh. What a weakling," Naruto chided.

     "What!?"

     "You heard me. You couldn't get strong on your own so you use some evil ninja's power as a shortcut. I thought better of you, Sasuke."

     "Say what you want, it doesn't change the fact that now I'm going to kill you," Sasuke replied coldly.

     "Go ahead and try it!" Naruto challenged. Sasuke ran at him and before he could even register the movement he was slammed in the face by Sasuke's fist, a lot harder than before. He managed to get to his feet again.

     "Do you see now, Dobe-kun?" Sasuke jeered. "You can preach all you want, but this power makes me ten times stronger than I ever was before."

     "Hmph. I still say you're a cheater and a coward," Naruto said defiantly, wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth. This seemed to anger Sasuke, who charged and punched him again. This time Naruto skidded along the ground until he ran into a tree and stopped abruptly. Sasuke stood and mockingly looked down at him, a smirk on his face.

     _"I have to knock him out somehow,"_ Naruto thought. _"If I can get him back to the old hag, she can get rid of that seal and he'll be back to normal."_ He slowly made his way to his feet again. "Is that all you've got?" He taunted. "Kiba hit harder than that!" This time he got a kick to the gut, followed by an uppercut that sent him flying into the air, only to land again about six feet in front of his opponent. 

     "I…promised…Sakura-chan…that I'd…bring you home," Naruto grunted as he pushed himself up to his knees. "Those guys…all risked their lives…so we could get to you." He brought his right leg up and placed his foot on the ground. "The old hag trusted us with this mission…" he slowly began to stand up, bringing his other leg forward as he did so…"And I'm not about to fail just because you don't _feel_ like going back!" He stood erect, and just as Sasuke was about to respond, the ground behind him exploded and a blonde ninja popped out of the ground and grabbed him, holding him fast.

     "What!" Sasuke gasped in shock. "When did you…?"

     Naruto smirked. "When you defeated all my clones, you missed one," he said, stalking his way toward the immobile Sasuke. "I had it burrow under the ground while you were focused on me. It was tough; I had to maneuver you to just the right spot. You hit hard." He rubbed his cheek. "But now it's over. All I have to do is knock you out, and then I can carry you back to the village without any trouble." He cracked his knuckles and prepared a good punch. He stopped a moment later when he noticed Sasuke was smirking, indeed shaking with low-pitched, subdued laughter.

     "What's so funny?" Naruto demanded.

     "You think this is all the power I have?" Sasuke asked, as if it were funny to think such a thing. "This is over all right, and you lost." His eyes glinted gold for a moment before returning to their Sharingan red, and then something truly bizarre began to happen. Sasuke's hair turned a dark gray and grew down past his waist. His body grew ever so slightly, and his skin took on a darker, browner color. Through it all, Naruto could actually see chakura swirling around Sasuke's form.

     "What the hell?" the fox boy couldn't think of anything else to say. Sasuke was literally transforming in front of him.

     "Why so surprised?" Sasuke's voice was somewhat deeper and more gruff than usual. "This is the same as those four sound nins you fought."

     Naruto thought for a second. "The same…"

     Then, with a mighty yell, Sasuke hurled the clone from his back and it smashed into a tree, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Naruto didn't even have time to think before the same was done to him.

     He rubbed his head, looking around for Sasuke. He didn't have to look for long; the young Uchiha was on him again in four seconds and flung him into another three.

     _"Kuso!"_ Naruto thought. "_I need to think of something fast! But what should I do? He just…transformed and got a whole lot more powerful all of a sudden. He's like that Gaara…"_ A light bulb went of in Naruto's head. He quickly focused chakura to his legs and jumped away just as Sasuke came down on him again. While in the air, be bit the end of his thumb and began the seals necessary for the technique, all the while pleading with the Kyuubi to lend him some power. When he hit the ground, he thrust his hand downward and called out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" There was a puff of smoke, and Naruto found himself sitting upon an eight-foot toad.

     "Huh?" Naruto asked, confused. He'd expected bigger. "Who are you?"

     "Gamakawazu1," the toad replied. "Did you want my help or were you just going to be rude?"

     "Man, where's Gamabunta when you need him?" Naruto grumbled. "I guess I must've used up too much chakura earlier, and that damn fox is being stingy. Well, I guess you'll have to do."

     "Thanks a lot," Gamakawazu replied. "So what's going on?"

     "An old teammate of mine as a curse seal that's made him really strong and also really crazy."

     "Sounds bad," the toad observed. "All right, here's what we'll do. I'll lure him into a straight fight, and then you come from behind and get him with your kunai."

     "I thought I was supposed to come up with the plan!" Naruto shouted. "Besides, we can't kill him. We just have to defeat him and then take him back to the village."

     "Geez, you didn't mention that part," Gamakawazu said. "Fine, we'll do it your way. What's the plan?"

     "Naruto!" Sasuke's cry came from above him. The moment of cover he'd gone had passed, and now he had to fight again. Or run. It seemed that was all he was doing.

     "Look out!" Naruto called to the toad. He didn't need to, as Gamakawazu had already begun to jump back. Sasuke's blow hit the ground and dust and rocks flew up everywhere. A few of the rocks hit Naruto, beating him up even worse.

     "Okay, here's the plan," he said to his partner. "Do you think you can keep him busy for a minute or so?"

     The toad thought for a moment, even as he again jumped to avoid another attack from Sasuke.

     "Just a minute? Yeah, I think I should be able to handle that. Why, what are you going to do?"

     "I'm going to try to gather enough chakura for an attack that should be able to bring him down. I'll signal you when I'm ready, and then you have to try to get him into position, because if I miss, we're dead."

     "Gotcha. But don't take any longer than a minute. This guy's crazy strong. Running away is one thing, but if I'm actually fighting him…"

     "Don't worry, I can do it," Naruto assured him.

     "All right, then." The toad then drew a small sword from his back that Naruto hadn't even noticed before. "Here, jump off at this tree."

     "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto cried softly so Sasuke wouldn't notice while still surrounded by the dust from his last attack. He left the clone on Gamakawazu's back and jumped onto a tree limb as they flew past it.

     "Naruto!" He heard Sasuke's altered voice shout. "Who's the coward now? Is running all you and your pet frog can do?"

     "You wish, you bastard!" The clone yelled. The fight had begun. There wasn't much time left.

     _"Hey, you damn fox!"_ Naruto called to the Kyuubi residing in his stomach. _"This is pretty important! I need your chakura! Just give me a little bit and we can get out of this!"_ He heard – or rather mentally sensed – an annoyed growl, but felt nothing else. Then, after a few seconds where he feared the fox would not help, he felt the red chakura flow into him as it had on so many dire occasions before. Naruto grinned and held out his hands, preparing the Rasengan.

     The battle was heating up. It was clear that Gamakawazu wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, and Sasuke was sure to discover that it was only a clone riding the toad. It was now or never. Naruto released the jutsu controlling the clone, and it disappeared. The signal.

     "What??" Sasuke growled. He jerked his head, looking for the real Naruto, and was clipped in the jaw by a powerful frog's leg. He landed on the ground about fifteen feet from the tree Naruto was in. Perfect.

     The young blonde ninja leapt from the tree and dashed toward his opponent as fast as he possibly could. Sasuke was already standing up, his back hidden by the long, wild gray hair that grew down over it. He seemed to hear Naruto's approach just as he stood up straight, and turned to meet it. But by then it was already too late.

     "Rasengan!" Naruto thrust the swirling ball of power right into Sasuke's torso. The transformed shinobi seemed to spin wildly in place for a moment before flying backwards at high speed, finally stopping when he slammed into a rather wide tree. He fell to the ground limp, and his hair and skin returned to their normal state. Naruto had won.

*END FLASHBACK*

     "How horrible," Sakura spoke after several seconds of silence. "Sasuke-kun was really like that?"

     Naruto nodded solemnly. Ino was left speechless.

     "And now I know it wasn't because of the curse seal like I thought," Naruto said, disgusted. "He did all that of his own free will."

     Sakura could do nothing to refute him. He was right. _"Sasuke-kun…"_

     "Hey! What are you guys all doing standing outside my room?" Sakura looked over to the source of the voice to find Shikamaru standing in a doorway.

     "We…ah…came to visit you, Shikamaru," Ino said. She was doing her best to regain her composure.

     "Oh yeah?" The chuunin sounded vaguely interested.

     "Well, of course!" Ino replied, putting some more cheerfulness in her voice. "What, did you think we were going to let you just rot in the hospital by yourself?"

     "Hmm. Whatever," he said, shrugging. "Come in if you want." He turned around and went back to his hospital bed. Ino turned to Sakura and Naruto.

     "We came here to make these guys feel better, so let's try to not be all broody about Sasuke," she said.

     "Right," Sakura agreed.

     "Yeah, you're right," said Naruto.

     Sakura took notice that for the first time, Ino did not add the "kun" suffix to Sasuke's name.

     The three of them entered Shikamaru's room and walked over to him. Aside from some scrapes and bruises, he looked fine. He probably didn't need to be in the hospital at all anymore, but was just milking it for the time off.

     "How are you, Shikamaru?" Ino asked anyway.

     "Huh? I'm fine, I guess. How are the other guys?" He looked away while he asked, deliberately not looking them in the eye.

     "They're alive," Sakura told him, "and should fully recover…eventually."

     "That's good." The tension that was so rare in Shikamaru's visage eased up just a little bit.

     "So, Naruto," he asked. "Did you finally find Sasuke?"

     "Um…yeah, I found him. He's back."

     "Well, I guess we succeeded then, eh? What about those sand ninjas? Where are they?"

     "They're here. They needed some rest too, I guess."

     "Say, Shikamaru, did you want to come visit Chouji with us?" Ino asked.

     "Hmm? Is he awake?"

     "We don't know," the blonde girl answered. "We haven't been there yet."

     "I guess I should go. I was the one who allowed him to stay behind and fight, after all."

     "What do you mean?" Ino asked him as he got up and the four of them walked out of the room. Sakura and Naruto just listened somehow feeling it would be out of place to take part in the conversation.

     "The first enemy we faced…Chouji said he'd stay behind and take care of him so the rest of us could go ahead and have a chance of catching Sasuke. I let him. And…I'm pretty sure he took all three pills."

     Ino gasped. "You're not serious!"

     "I warned him not to, but if the guy he fought was anything like the others and could transform, then he probably would've had to."

     Transform…Sakura thought back to Naruto's description of his battle with Sasuke. From the look on Ino's face, she could tell her friend was thinking the same thing. 

     _"Sasuke-kun…what's happened to you?"_

     They arrived at Chouji's room, and Naruto poked his head in.

     "Is he asleep?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded.

     "We'll just leave the flower here then, so he'll see it when he wakes up," Ino said, placing the flower next to his bed.

     "Heh…Chouji gets flowers," Shikamaru remarked sarcastically.

     "Oh!" Ino said. "You get one too, Shikamaru. I forgot because you don't really seem injured." She stuck her tongue out at him as she gave him his flower.

     "Whatever," he said as he took it. He looked at it, not really sure what to do with it. _"Hmph. How troublesome."_

     "Well, we don't want to wake him up, right?" Naruto said. "Let's go see how Kiba's doing."

     They made their way to Kiba's room. This time, the patient was awake for their visit.

     "Hey, Kiba!" Naruto greeted cheerfully.

     "Naruto?" The dog ninja replied, puzzled. Then realization reached his face. "You got him, then?" 

     Naruto simply nodded, not wishing to say anything else on the matter.

     "Hey, that's great! How's everyone else doing, are they okay? No one died, right?"

     "No," Shikamaru answered calmly. "No one died."

     "Ah, that's great. Hey, I never got a chance to thank that puppet guy. Anybody know where he is?"

     "You'll get your chance," Ino told him. "He's around."

     "Any news on other stuff?" Kiba asked. "I mean, the sand obviously aren't our enemy anymore, but what about the sound? Have they done anything else?"

     "Not that we've heard about," Ino said. "Sakura, didn't you say you were on guard duty with Gai-sensei? Did he say anything?"

     Sakura shook her head. "No, he didn't. And Hokage-sama hasn't said anything either."

     "They'll be back," Naruto said. "That Orochimaru guy isn't the type who'd just roll over and give up." 

     Sakura had too many thoughts swirling around in her head. She needed to get out of the hospital and get some air.

     "Um, I think I'm going to go take a walk," she said finally, interrupting the group from the conversation she'd lost track of. "I need to clear my head. I hope you're feeling better, Kiba-kun." She gave a slight bow and left the room.

     "Hey, Sakura-chan, wait up!" Naruto called and ran after her.

     "You guys leaving, too?" Kiba asked of Ino and Shikamaru.

     "No, I think I'll stay around here today and see if Chouji wakes up," Ino said.

     "Which means you'll be hanging around _me_ all day, right?" Shikamaru clarified.

     "Well of _course_, Shikamaru-kun!" she teased. "Who else would I hang out with?" She stuck her tongue out for effect. Shikamaru crossed his arms in exasperation.

     "Hmph. How troublesome."

*          *            *

     Sakura walked along the path that led to the bridge that had always been team seven's meeting place. Naruto walked alongside her in silence. He'd asked where she was going upon catching up to her, to which she replied that she just needed some time and a place to think. He hadn't pressed the matter, and she was grateful to him for that.

     Finally they arrived at the bridge, and Sakura took a seat on the side rail, facing the water. Naruto hopped up on the rail next to her, about a foot and a half away.

     "Naruto…"she began suddenly, "Was that all true? About Sasuke-kun?"

     He nodded. He wore a serious expression that was not often to be seen on the carefree young ninja.

     "I wouldn't lie to you about that, Sakura-chan. I know you like him a lot."

     She did. Didn't she? She wasn't so sure anymore. The image of Uchiha Sasuke that she'd always maintained in her mind was nothing like what Naruto had described to her, or even what she herself had experienced firsthand the night he left. She had tried to just let it go then, and figured that if Naruto could just bring him home then everything would be all better. Sasuke-kun would be the same old Sasuke-kun that she'd had a crush on for as long as she could remember. But it hadn't turned out that way.

     "It hurts," she said finally. Naruto looked up at her quizzically. "To like someone so much and have them brush you aside like you're nothing. It hurts."

     "Yeah, I know." Naruto's response almost sounded like he was saying it to himself. That's when she remembered how she'd always used to treat him. How everyone had always used to treat him.

     "I'm sorry, Naruto," she said. "I was horrible to you for years and you had every right to hate me for it but you didn't. Thank you for that."

     "No problem." He grinned at her, and that was it. She couldn't believe how easy it was with him. With the life he'd led, with all the troubles she knew he'd gone through, he was still such a good person. She was glad to have him as a friend, and realized that she was openly admitting that to herself for the very first time. God, how horrible she'd been to him if that was the case.

     "There you are," came a voice from above. They looked up in unison to see Kakashi-sensei looking down on them from what had always been his regular perch over the bridge. "You weren't at your homes and you weren't at the hospital with the others; if you weren't here I wouldn't know where to begin looking," he said. His laid-back tone was a little less laid-back than usual, Sakura noticed.

     "What's wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked. His reply was something she hadn't expected at all, and it gave her a big chill.

     "Sasuke's gone."

*          *            *            *            *          

Done! And this is just the _prologue._ Crap von Crappen! (My fancy way of saying "holy crap!") The rest of the story will take place far in the future (well, maybe not "far," …it's all relative, you know). I just needed this to set everything up. That's why they call it a "prologue."

To those of you who are waiting for me to update **Say What You Mean** (my Ranma fic), it's coming. I just hit a bit of a snag in how I wanted to word a certain part, so I had to go back over it several times. That happens. I should have it figured out pretty soon. And as for this one, the title will come into play later. Not _later_ later, but later. I used it as the title because it is a major part of the story, and because it sounds cool as a title.

Note 1: Gamakawazu. "Gama" means "toad," and "kawazu" means "frog." It's a lame play on words, you see?


	2. Chapter 1: The Snow Ninjas

Author's Notes: Okay, here's where the story actually starts. Don't be surprised if the chapters start to vary in length. There might be one at 12,000 words and the next might barely break 4,000. It happens. It all depends on where I decide I want the breaks to be, and also on if I decide to do a lot of cliffhangers (which I most likely will – I love cliffhangers).

And for any of you who aren't familiar with all the Japanese terms and phrases that I throw all over the place, there'll be a glossary at the end of each chapter. Not included will be the common things just about everybody knows like the honorifics, "arigatou," "baka," and stuff like that.

Chapter One – Three Years Later

"Sakura-chan! Ganbatte!" Naruto cheered for his friend and teammate as she made her way out into the center of the arena for her first match in her fourth chuunin tournament. He knew she would make it this time; he just knew it. He himself had made chuunin on his second try, which had been exactly a year after his first. He and Sakura had missed the one in between because they had been searching for a genin to take the exams with them, since Sasuke was gone and they needed three people. Also, Sakura had been pretty depressed for several months after the young Uchiha's departure, and neither Naruto nor Kakashi-sensei felt that she was in any condition to take any sort of exams.

The exams had been in the wind country that year. Things had been patched up quickly between the leaf and the sand after the Orochimaru incident, and it was interesting to see Gaara and his team again, even though they were already chuunin by then.

Kiba had passed that time as well, and Hinata the time after. Shino had passed six months before. It made it difficult for the rest of his friends to take the test when their teams kept getting split up. Chuunin and genin could perform missions with their old teams with no problems, and often did, but a chuunin who had already passed could not take the exam again. So for the past few tries up until the present test (held in Kusagakure), Sakura had taken the exams with Ino and Chouji, the only other two of the so-called "rookie nine" (who still lived in the village) to have not yet passed.

He grinned as he watched his Sakura-chan walk out to stand opposite her opponent. She'd really grown in the past few years, in more ways than one. She'd become much stronger physically. Kakashi-sensei said it was because she didn't have Sasuke as a distraction anymore. Naruto could believe that, but he also thought maybe she was still upset about that jerk leaving and was taking it out in her training. It was something he himself was known to do when he was upset about something.

She was a stronger person mentally as well. They'd all been forced to grow up when Orochimaru and his sound ninjas attacked, and within the people he knew, it was most notable in Sakura and Hinata. Even though they hadn't been _directly_ attacked in three years, the war was technically still on, and growing up in wartime hardened a person.

Physically, she was the most beautiful thing Naruto had ever seen. He'd been around Jiraiya long enough to know what the ideal female body was supposed to look like, and as far as he was concerned Sakura-chan was it. He heard a lot of people say that Yamanaka Ino was the most beautiful girl from his year, but he just didn't see it. Sure, Ino was nice-looking, and had more curves, but Sakura-chan was…Sakura-chan. There really were no words to describe it.

As he waited for the match to start, he couldn't help but feel excited. She hadn't taken the test in a year, and she'd improved a lot since the last time. Kakashi-sensei had been teaching them lots of tricks, and she'd finally been getting the hang of some of them. He couldn't wait for everyone to see how great she was.

As the examiner raised his hand, signaling that he was about to start the match, Naruto looked at his teammate's opponent for the first time. He was from Yukigakure, a village Naruto had never even heard of before. He was the only rookie of three genin from that village to come for the test, and all of them had advanced to the final tournament. He didn't know what to expect from the fight, but judging from the village he hailed from, this kid would probably know a lot of cold-related jutsu. He allowed himself a chuckle. No problem at all for Sakura-chan.

Sakura stood there, trying her best to analyze her opponent. He was about as tall as she was. His clothing certainly was interesting. He wore an old-fashioned ninja outfit, complete with hood and mask. The only thing was, it was white instead of black. The sash he wore around his waist and his mask were both bright blue. The snowflake on his hitai-ate indicated he would probably know some jutsu involving ice or cold. She had no idea what village he was from, though. She'd never heard of the snow ninjas before.

She could hear Naruto cheering for her from the stands; his voice was that loud. She allowed herself a small smile. Nobody believed in her as much as he did…not even herself. He'd been a great friend and training partner, and she wanted to become a chuunin as much for him as for anything else. If she failed again, she'd feel like she was letting him down somehow, and Kakashi-sensei as well. They'd both helped her so much, and if she were to fail a fourth time, it would be like that was all for nothing. Besides, aside from Ino, he was the only _real_ friend that she had.

The examiner raised his hand. She shook her head clear and focused everything on her opponent, who looked calm and casual. A shiver ran up her spine as she was reminded of the first time she encountered Gaara of the sand.

"Match one: Haruno Sakura versus Sabu Shiro! Begin!"

She instantly hurled shuriken at the one she now knew as Shiro and pushed chakura into her legs to dash backwards. She didn't even care if he dodged them or caught them or whatever; they were just a distraction.

She began molding the chakura required for her favorite technique. Kakashi-sensei always said that she had a knack for genjutsu, so it made sense for her to try to develop a signature technique in that area. It took a long time and she had to miss the previous exam because she wasn't ready, but she'd finally mastered it and was ready to try it out in combat.

As Kakashi-sensei had explained, the Meimei no Jutsu was fairly complex and used quite a bit of chakura, but when sustained it was nearly unbreakable. She finished the final seal and called out her technique. Instantly she vanished from sight.

No sooner had she done so than she saw her own shuriken from earlier flying at her face. She bent backwards to dodge. So he had caught them. For such a young kid, he was pretty good. A lot better than she had been at that age.

She dashed around to his left side and threw a kunai, this time watching to test his defense. He didn't notice it until it was five feet away, but he still managed to bring his own up in time to counter. Sakura's genjutsu could not affect her weapons once they were a certain distance away from her, which was why she was throwing from this far back. If he got used to them appearing before they hit him, she would take him by complete surprise when she came in closer.

She dashed around to his other side even as he began darting his head around trying to locate her. It wouldn't help. The Meimei no Jutsu not only obscured her from sight, but all traces of her, including footprints and any dust kicked up by her movements. It even suppressed any sounds her body made through moving. Unless she were to vocally announce herself, there was no possible way to locate her.

Naruto smiled proudly as the snow kid parried another set of shuriken that he hadn't noticed until the last second. Sakura-chan was testing him. This time her weapons didn't appear until they were only four feet from his head. If anything, the kid had a great defense.

He knew why she was doing this, too. The jutsu's only weakness was that if the user was not careful, a skilled opponent could sense his chakura if he got to close. That was why it was not generally used for melee combat for extended periods of time, and if it was, the user was extremely proficient at masking his chakura. Sakura-chan was good, but if this kid was any faster than they'd already seen, he might just be able to sense her if she came in close to hit him.

A few more times around, and suddenly the snow kid cried out in pain. A kunai had impaled his shoulder. Sakura-chan was close enough so that her weapons would be masked all the way in. Now things would get interesting.

She watched as Shiro pulled the kunai out of his shoulder. This not being an actual mission but only a test, she didn't want to kill him or seriously injure him if she could avoid it. After all, he was just a kid trying to prove himself, just like her. He didn't need to die for that. If she could intimidate him enough, perhaps he'd just give up. Under the present circumstances, there was no way he could beat her. He'd become increasingly nervous as her weapons had been getting closer and closer to him. And if all else failed, she could always just beat him up.

She dashed around behind him and landed a high kick on his head, retreating before he got the chance to sense her. She came around in front of him and landed a punch to his gut, retreating yet again.

"Is hiding all you can do?" he demanded after coughing up a small spit of blood. She smirked a little. If there was one thing she'd learned well from Kakashi-sensei, it was to never feel guilty for any kind of advantage you had, and to exploit it to the fullest. Before, she might have been more hesitant, but on the difficult missions she'd completed with Naruto during these troubled times, she'd grown a little harder and no longer allowed herself to empathize with her opponents. She dashed in and landed another kick to his back.

"So you're just gonna try and chip away at me, is that it?" he shouted. "Don't underestimate me!"

He crossed his hands in front of him, and before she knew what was happening, there were three of him. At first she thought it was Bunshin no Jutsu, but upon closer inspection she noticed that there were now three of everything.

_"Genjutsu, huh?"_ she thought. She could handle that. She brought her hands together and whispered "Kai!"

Shiro whirled around. She realized her mistake. Though still silent and invisible, that tiny vocal utterance had given away her position. This guy was very good at listening, it seemed.

She sent chakura to her feet so she could escape, at the same time seeing him finish off a system of seals she'd never seen before. Just as she was about to escape, he performed the final seal, dori, and held it out in front of him.

"Hyouton! Koori no kaze no Jutsu!" He took a huge breath, and then leaned toward her and blew it out. All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and she had no time to escape.

The wind blew her back a bit, but it was nowhere near too strong for her. But it was so cold…she was already shivering. She wore a different style of the clothes she had worn when she first became a genin. It looked a lot like her old dress, except the middle was missing in the front and the back, only a strip of fabric on each of her sides preventing it from being a two-piece outfit. As a result, not only her arms and legs were exposed to the extreme cold, but her bare midriff as well. She tried to hug herself with her arms, and even attempted to warm herself with chakura, but it was no use. The wind lasted all of six seconds, but in the end, she'd lost the hold on her Meimei no Jutsu. She was no longer invisible, and thus she was now vulnerable.

Shiro let the last puff of air out of his lungs and then stood up, looking at her with some kind of cross between a smirk and a sneer. Sakura was still shivering and rubbing her arms. She hadn't even been aware that there were specific ice element jutsu. She'd never come across anything like them in her studies.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" the young snow ninja taunted. "Are you gonna keep fighting me, or are you too cold?"

_"This kid is good,"_ she thought to herself. _"I'll have to go after him another way."_ She molded her chakura and began forming the seals for her next jutsu. It was difficult because she was shivering, and Shiro had dropped out of his cocky pose and charged her head on. She finished her last seal and called out, "Katon! Goukakyu no Jutsu!" The huge fireball shot straight at her opponent, who showed great dexterity in his ability to jump over it with ease.

"How's she doing?" came a voice from behind Naruto. He turned around to find Kakashi standing there.

"You're late again!" he yelled at his teacher, even though it was completely expected. "She was doing great at first, but this guy managed to break through her Meimei no Jutsu."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow went up. "Oh?"

"Yeah, it was strange. Some kind of cold wind jutsu or something," Naruto said. "But she'll be all right." He grinned proudly again. "She's using those fire jutsu you taught her. Look." He pointed to the center of the arena, where Sakura was blowing fire at her opponent repeatedly, while he dodged.

"She's not going to hit him like that," Kakashi observed. "But she probably knows that. She must be trying to lure him into something."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "But how much chakura can Sakura-chan use on those fire jutsu?"

"Sakura is extremely efficient in her chakura use," Kakashi said. "Not a bit of it goes to waste. Even though she's relatively low in stamina compared to a lot of other ninja of her age and skill level, she can keep that up for a while."

"Look!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing to the ring. "Something's happening!"

Sakura had stopped blowing fire, and had performed a Bunshin no Jutsu, creating four clones of her self that were now spreading out to surround her opponent.

"She might have him now," Kakashi said. "If she has all of her clones perform the jutsu, even though only one will be real, there will be no way of knowing which one it is until it's too late, and there's nothing nearby to use for a kawamiri. That means there is only one way he can dodge: up."

Her clones now in position, Sakura prepared for one final attack as her opponent looked around frantically, trying to figure out which one of her was real. She formed the seals again, and let out an enormous fire blast, her clones all mimicking her actions. She smirked mentally. He would have to jump over them, and then she'd have him.

"Katon! Goukakyu no Jutsu!" She waited for him to jump so she could go after him. But the flames were converging and he wasn't moving. Then, at the last second, he crouched down low and crossed his arms over his head.

_"What is he doing?" _She wondered in astonishment. _"He's going to let it hit him?"_

He did indeed let it hit him. The flame grew into a large fireball to indicate that it had hit its intended target. Sakura was at a loss for words.

She would stay that way, for just as the flames dissipated, he stood up quickly and spun to face her.

_"He purposely let it hit him so he could tell which direction it came from?"_ She was so shocked by this that she didn't notice him performing seals again until he'd already finished. He then cupped his hands in front of him.

"Hyouton: Hyounami no Jutsu!" A wash of cold sped toward Sakura. It looked like a big ball of frozen water, and it was too fast and he was too close for her to dodge. She tried anyway.

It caught her right in the torso just as she was jumping to the left. Instantly she felt cold all over. She landed back on her feet, but she could no longer move. She was frozen stiff.

Shino pulled down his mask. Underneath she could see a very young ninja smiling arrogantly back at her. He was perhaps even younger than she had been as a rookie, though his height certainly belied his age. The scorch marks and burn holes all over his clothing did not seem to bother him in the least, not to mention the still-bleeding hole in his shoulder. He began walking toward her at an almost leisurely pace.

"You're no match for my ice techniques," he declared. "Statistically, only one person every three generations is able to learn them effectively. Sensei says I'm a genius for learning so many already." He stepped up to her and pushed on her shoulder a bit with his right index finger. "Heh. Looks like you've never been truly cold before in your entire life. If you'd grown up in my village, your body would already be recovering from the attack." He gave her one last cocky grin before saying, "Looks like I win, then." And then he punched her in the face.

"What!" Naruto shouted as he jumped to his feet. "Kakashi-sensei! What just happened?"

Below them, the examiner was declaring, "Winner: Sabu Shiro!"

"Sakura miscalculated," Kakashi said simply. "She didn't expect her opponent to willingly be hit by such an attack. Truthfully, I didn't expect it either."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Naruto was worried.

"I think she will be. It looks like she was just immobilized from the cold and then punched out. She's been through worse. They just need to warm her up is all."

"Well I'm gonna go make sure she's okay," Naruto declared. He then ran down to the front row of the stands, jumped over the wall into the arena and chased off after Sakura, who was being carried away by the medical team. Kakashi could only chuckle.

-

She was cold. So very, very cold. On the bright side, that helped to ease the headache she had. She must have lost the fight, because the last thing she remembered was the fist of a too-tall-for-his-age ninja slamming into her face, and she was lying on something that was altogether too soft to be the arena floor.

"Sakura-chan?" And that would be Naruto's voice. She'd definitely lost if he was allowed to stand right next to her.

"Are you awake?"

Her head throbbed with the noise. "Errg, not so loud…"

"Gomen," she heard him say, softer than before. It was then that she managed to force her eyes open to look at him. He had an expression of concern on her face, and that just made her feel worse. She'd blown her chance at becoming a chuunin _again_, and he just had to be disappointed in her. Slowly, she tried to sit up, bringing her hand up to clutch her head. The pain was going away, but it was taking its time in doing so. And she was still so cold.

"Is the fist round over?" she asked when she finally made it into a sitting position. She wanted to know how Ino and Chouji had done.

"No, just your fight. They were starting the next one when I came in here with you."

_"He came in with me?"_

"So I wasn't out for very long?" she asked. Naruto let out what sounded like a small laugh.

"No, not really. I don't think that guy can hit very hard," he said. If it was supposed to make her feel better, it didn't.

"I'm sorry for losing the match."

He looked at her as if she'd grown a second head.

"Hn? What are you apologizing to me for, Sakura-chan?"

"Well, it's just that…" she scratched her head, relieved that he didn't seem the least bit upset, "…you and Kakashi-sensei worked so hard to help me get better, and I still couldn't win. It's like you did all that for nothing."

He regarded her for a few seconds, and then broke into his trademark happy grin.

"Don't say that, Sakura-chan. You did great, really! Everybody says you've gotten a lot stronger. And besides, that guy's techniques were just weird. He got you by surprise is all."

She let out a sigh and looked down at the bed she was sitting on. "Arigatou, Naruto."

Kakashi looked up from the "match" that had just ended when he sensed his pupils approaching. Sakura had a blanket draped over her shoulders and seemed to be walking fine, despite Naruto's repeated efforts to try and help her.

"I'm fine, Naruto!" he heard her say. "Really!" It was then that his other student looked up and saw him watching.

"Oi! Kakashi-sensei! What did we miss?"

He let them get close enough so he could respond without raising his voice. "The sand ninja lost to the grass ninja in the match that was starting when you left," he said to Naruto. "It wasn't very interesting, really. And then the other two grass ninja were set up to fight, but the younger boy pulled out, saying he refused to fight his teammate."

Naruto smiled. "Sounds like a good guy. Too bad he won't get the chance to become a chuunin this time."

"Not necessarily," Kakashi said. "That's how you became one."

Naruto's eyes shot open and his head spun to face Kakashi. Sakura did the same.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Don't you remember? In the exam when you became a chuunin, you were paired up to fight Sakura in the second round, but you withdrew, saying you wouldn't fight your own teammate?"

Naruto scratched his nose. "Well yeah, but I'd already fought one round. I thought they made me a chuunin because of my excellent fighting abilities."

"That was probably a factor," Kakashi said, "but the main reason was your devotion to your comrades. That's very important in a chuunin."

Naruto appeared shocked. Kakashi sweatdropped. "You didn't know that?" _"Although he probably wouldn't have minded if Sasuke had still been on the team and it was him he was scheduled to fight…"_

"I never knew that, either," Sakura said bluntly.

"And I thought I was giving Sakura a better chance," Naruto mused.

"In theory you were, but her next opponent stripped that away from her. If things had gone the other way and you had fought him, both of you might have become chuunin. But there's no way to really know that now."

Naruto looked awful. He slowly turned his head to Sakura. "G-gomen, Sakura-chan."

"No, that's okay," she assured him, laughing nervously. Why did he think he had to apologize for that? She'd thought it was amazing of him to give up that match as opposed to fighting her. She still did. "If that was the reason you became a chuunin, you might not have if you didn't," she told him. "And I think you're more fit to be a chuunin than I am."

For once, Naruto didn't have anything to say.

"The next match is starting," Kakashi said, interrupting the two of them. "Ino is fighting now."

"Oh! Ino!" Sakura exclaimed, quickly spinning to face the arena floor. Sure enough, her friend was standing there, in the same fighting clothes she'd always worn (filled out more now, of course), opposite…another snow ninja.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked. The girl was dressed in a solid black skin-tight bodysuit, save for a small blue triangle from her shoulders to the center of her chest. She wore a blue ribbon around her right thigh, and her hitai-ate with the snowflake was around her waist. Like her teammate, she wore a blue facemask, but hers was solid, not fabric, and it had a few small breathing holes in it. Sakura had to squint to see, but the girl's breath was clearly visible coming out of those holes, as if it were a cold winter day. And most striking of all was the girl's hair, which was silky smooth and reached back to almost her shoulders, the color of a pure glacial lake. Unless she'd developed early, she looked about thirteen or fourteen.

"She looks impressive," Sakura said. "She could probably get a lot of jobs based just on appearance. She really looks professional."

"She exudes the look that many people think of when they think of a ninja, yes," Kakashi agreed.

"Hey, hey!" Naruto interjected. "So she looks good, so what? That doesn't mean she's a great fighter or anything. I bet that Shiro guy Sakura-chan fought was the strongest on their team."

Kakashi didn't say anything. _"No. She carries herself like a person who has vast experience and skill."_

The examiner signaled that the match was about to begin. Ino lowered herself a little, and the other girl brought her hands and front knee up into a fighting stance that looked vaguely familiar to Sakura but that she couldn't lay a name on. Kakashi's eyebrow rose a little bit.

"Tong Bei Quan, hmm?" he mused.

"Hn? Tong Bei Quan?" Naruto asked. "What's that?"

"It's a style of taijutsu that mimics the white apes that live high in the mountains. I've only ever seen it once before. For her to have learned it so young…"

"Match four!" the examiner called out. "Yamanaka Ino versus Shimoda Teiko!"

Sakura's eyebrow shot up. "'Shimoda'? What a strange name."

"Yes," Kakashi agreed. "Judging from your earlier fight, Sakura, this might not go well for Ino."

"Begin!"

Ino charged at her opponent the second the match began. It was an unusual tactic for her, but if this girl had any techniques similar to those of her teammate, then close combat was probably her best option. Besides, if it didn't work, she could always think of something else. She threw a punch and it was blocked. She was about to send in a kick when a lightning fast triple fisted counterattack came that she could not deflect. She found herself on the ground, staring back up at the younger girl who still stood in her same fighting stance as if nothing had happened.

_"What is this style of taijutsu?"_ Ino wondered. _"It's fast and powerful at the same time. I can't match it."_ She stood up. _"Heh. Looks like long range combat is the better option after all."_

Just then, Teiko came charging at her. She managed to block the first few strikes, but the taijutsu she'd learned from her father and from Asuma-sensei was no match for the style this girl was using. She soon felt herself reeling backwards, the victim of a powerful toe kick to the gut. She found her way to her feet once more and wiped a trickle of blood from her lip. Her opponent was still in that same stance.

_"I hate to use this in the first round, but it looks like if I don't go all out I might not even get any farther than that," _Ino thought. _"All right then, that jutsu it is."_ She made the seals she'd made hundreds of times going all the way back to her academy days, and performed the first part of her technique.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Two dozen clones phased into existence and surrounded Teiko in a huge circle. The icy kunoichi did not appear impressed.

"With your true self in plain sight, it won't take long for me to deduce which one you are, you know," Teiko called out. "I'd expect a ninja of your age to know that. Or were you held back several times and only became a genin recently? That must be it if you're trying to fool me with such a basic technique." Throughout that whole speech, she'd been looking around the circle, trying to find the real Ino.

All the Inos laughed and spoke in unison. "You think I'll be that easy to find?" Go ahead and try." The snow ninja's smirk was visible in her eyes as she continued her examination of the circle.

"Maybe I'm over here," one of the Ino clones mocked.

"Or here," said another one from the other side of the circle.

"Shut up!" Teiko snapped, annoyed. "You're trying to confuse me and it's not going to work."

"It's not?"

"But I think I've already confused you."

"Otherwise you would have found me by now."

"You said so yourself, didn't you?"

Teiko continued scanning the circle, but her expression was growing more and more panicked. "This can't be…" she stammered. "It's not possible. You couldn't have just…"

All the clones spoke at once again. "I couldn't have just what?"

"They're all clones?" Teiko finally uttered. "Is this genjutsu?"

"Maybe it is," one of the clones said. "Or maybe I'm…"

"Right behind you!"

She spun around frantically. The voice had been three inches from her ear, but when she'd turned there had been no one. The circle of clones laughed again.

"This isn't funny!" Teiko screamed, now clearly unnerved. "I'll show you!" She held her hands out in front of her, and what looked like icy mist started to coalesce between her palms. It wasn't long before these mists started to take on a solid shape: that of a long pole. As Teiko continued focusing on the mists, the pole got longer and longer until it reached a length of about fifteen feet – a little longer than the radius of Ino's circle. All throughout this process the Ino clones continued taunting her.

"If you're using some sort of genjutsu, I'll find out now for sure!" Teiko yelled. She took hold of the pole like a bat, and spun around in a circle, holding it out straight so it passed through the Ino clones. After almost one time around, a loud "Oof!" was heard, and Ino was sent sprawling, all of her clones disappearing.

The blonde kunoichi got up and dusted herself off, gasping for breath.

"You're out of breath?" her opponent asked, seemingly amused. "I didn't think I got you that good, unless…" realization came to her face. "That wasn't genjutsu after all! You were just moving around the circle very fast, taking the place of each clone as you passed it. In essence, each clone was real, while at the same time all of them were false, as well. It's a brilliant psychological attack that will chip away at the enemy's confidence and will to fight, and in the end you move in to finish them off. It's best used only on amateurs, though. And to move that fast for such a prolonged length of time has got to use up a lot of energy. You must be exhausted." Once again, her eyes gave away her arrogant smile as she finished. Ino just glared at her, practically growling.

_"What does she mean 'best used only on amateurs'? She was freaking out plenty!"_ She watched as her opponent assumed the now all-too-familiar fighting stance again, having set the ice pole aside. It had already started melting. _"And what was with that pole? How did she make that?"_

"Are you going to attack me again? Or do you give up?" Teiko taunted.

_"Hmph. Like I'd surrender to someone like you." _"Bunshin no Jutsu!" The twenty-four clones appeared again, encircling her enemy as before.

"Not this again!" Teiko mocked. "Do you even have the energy to sustain it this time?" She picked up her fast-melting ice pole, which seemed to revitalize itself in her hands. She swung it around the circle as before. This time though, she hit nothing.

"You really think I'd try the same thing twice?" Ino yelled as she descended from the sky towards her unwitting foe, kunai drawn and pointed downward. The ice ninja instantly dropped the pole and flipped backwards, causing Ino to stab the ground. Without pausing for a second, Ino stood up and hurled four shuriken at the retreating girl, who landed from her final flip and held out her hand in front of her. The same strange mist from before appeared, and a disc grew out of nowhere on her hand to block the shuriken like a shield. She laughed triumphantly.

"How did…" Ino stammered.

"It's my blood limit ability," the girl explained confidently. "My family can control the water vapor in the air around us and freeze it into ice in any shape we choose. It's quite useful." She brought her hand holding the shield back behind her, and then hurled it like a discus at Ino, who had to jump high in the air to avoid it.

"Control…water vapor?" she asked in shock upon landing.

"Yes, and we can make it into anything we want. I'll show you." Teiko held out her hands and the mist appeared again. Into each hand a jagged-looking dagger made of ice formed as Ino looked on in awe.

"Now it's time for me to win this match," Teiko announced. She charged at Ino, who only had time to draw a kunai for defense before she was locked in melee combat once again.

"You're no match for my Tong Bei style when I'm unarmed!" Teiko taunted as she pressed her attack. "With these daggers, I could kill you easily."

Ino was sweating. The girl was right. She was barely managing to block as it was, and she already had numerous cuts along her arms, and one rather deep one on the top of her left ear.

"But," Teiko continued, "I've been instructed not to. So this will have to do."

Ino only had time to raise her eyebrows before her opponent's heel came up to smash her in the jaw, and she saw no more.

Sakura and Naruto knew Ino would want to watch Chouji's fight, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. She had a lot of cuts that needed to be treated, and they didn't know how long she'd be unconscious, either. They were hoping that the next fight between the two sand nins would be a long enough deterrent, but they were grossly disappointed. The sand ninja who lost looked like he hadn't even been trying, as if he knew he was going to lose right from the start. It made sense that he would, considering he and his opponent were on the same team. But it didn't represent him will in front of the people who would be doling out promotions.

And so Chouji's fight arrived fairly quickly. Naruto and Sakura (now free of her blanket) moved down to the front row to watch so that they might better describe the fight to Ino later. Chouji marched out proudly, a lot more confident than he had been in the past several years. Never one to fully believe in himself anyway, the mission of chasing after Sasuke and the sound nins three years ago had taken a physical toll on him that had been difficult to recover from. He'd participated in the chuunin exams with Sakura and Ino ever since Hinata had passed, but never done very well. He'd done it to be a third person so as to allow them to take the test, but always withdrew upon reaching the final tournament. This would be his first time actually competing in it.

"Ganbatte, Chouji-kun!" Sakura cheered.

"Don't worry, it'll be easy!" Naruto yelled.

"He's fighting that other snow ninja, isn't he?" Sakura asked her teammate, somewhat worried.

"Yeah, I think so. But there's no way this last guy can be as strong as the other two. They're super strong for a genin team already."

"But that would mean this one is too, right?"

Naruto stopped to think about that, and the examiner called that the fight was about to start.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the final match of the first round: Akimichi Chouji versus Yukimura Aomaru!" The other ninja was wearing white baggy pants and a white shirt not unlike Hyuuga Neji's. His black wristbands went halfway up to his elbows, and his brown hair went just past his shoulders, his hitai-ate on his forehead. But his most prominent feature was his eyes. Even from the distance they were at, Naruto and Sakura could see that they were the most piercing shade of blue imaginable. It was almost painful to look at them.

"And I thought you had strong blue eyes, Naruto," Sakura said.

"Yeah. This guy's are almost creepy."

"Begin!" the examiner shouted.

The ninja called Aomaru pulled out a pair of kunai and hurled them at Chouji, who blocked them with one of his own.

"Don't try to beat me with simple stuff like that," Chouji said. Aomaru smirked heavily.

"Just testing your defenses. I wanted to see how fast a fat ninja like you could react."

"What did you call me?" Chouji demanded.

"What did it sound like I called you? I called you fat."

"Why you!" Chouji shouted, pointing angrily at his opponent. "I'm not fat at all! I'll show you!" He performed a few seals, and then raised his hand up in preparation to punch the ground. "Doton: Ishi no Genkotsu no Jutsu!" He rammed his fist into the ground, and the disturbance caused headed straight for Aomaru in a straight line, until a large chunk of rock in the shape of a fist jutted out just beneath him, ready to land a hit right in his face. But he was too quick, and he waited until the last second before dodging backward just enough so that the attack would miss him.

"You've got to be kidding. Using a slow attack like that? You'll never catch anyone! I'll show you how a true ninja performs." He went through a sequence of seals so fast that neither Naruto nor Sakura could tell what they were. Then he crossed his arms in an "X" in front of him in the same fashion that Shiro had earlier when performing his genjutsu.

"Yukimura Ninpou: Hito Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. "H-hito…Bunshin no Jutsu?"

Sakura was just as shocked. "How does that work?"

The would soon find out, as a second Aomaru seemed to step out of the first's right side until they were standing next to each other.

"Do you like it?" they both asked simultaneously. It was more eerie that Ino's psychological attack, as it was hard to tell if it really was one voice or two, even though one could clearly see the mouths of both of them moving.

"N-nani?" Chouji stammered.

"My blood limit ability is extremely high cell reproduction rates. Over several generations, my family has developed many ninjutsu to utilize this ability. The one you are seeing right now is my favorite. A modification of the Bunshin no Jutsu, I create an actual living, genetic clone of myself. We're linked mentally for perfectly coordinated attacks. Watch and learn, fatty."

The two clones each adopted different fighting stances. Then, quick as a flash, they disappeared. One dashed to the side, the other straight at Chouji, only to appear seconds later directly in front of him, poised to strike. When Chouji reached up to defend, that Aomaru disappeared to his left, and the other one came in from behind, striking Chouji with a kick to the center of his back. It then disappeared again, right as the first one reappeared on the other side to land a punch. The pattern continued for several more hits, before each clone came to a rest, one twenty feet in front of Chouji, the other twenty feet behind him. After standing still for only a second or two, they dashed in unison again. The young Konoha ninja tried his best to raise a defense, but it was no use. The Aomaru from behind executed a perfect sweep to his feet just as the one from in front landed a flawless shin kick to his chest. The result was that Chouji spun in the air a few times before landing on his back. Aomaru continued his momentum on both counts, the two clones rotating into each other and finishing the motion as one person. He came to a stop in a non-fighting position the moment Chouji hit the ground. The entire arena was completely silent.

"Sa-Sakura-chan…what just happened?" Naruto asked after several seconds of standing openmouthed in astonishment.

"Aomaru's control of both of his separate bodies is incredible," she said, only half answering his question. She wasn't looking at him, but rather still had her gaze fixed on the two combatants in the center of the arena. She said nothing more for a few more moments before finally turning to look at her teammate. "It's even more coordinated than what you can do with your shadow clones, Naruto."

He could only nod in reply.

Seconds later, their attention was drawn back to the fight by a collective gasp from most of the spectators. Chouji was getting back up.

"Haven't had enough?" Aomaru taunted. Chouji got all the way to his feet before answering.

"I could probably beat you if I had to, but the steps I'd have to take would set me back another three years." Naruto listened closely, understanding his meaning exactly. "But there's no need to put everything on the line for an exam. I give up."

The release of tension was obvious. Noise rose up again, even as the examiner declared Aomaru the winner.

"You okay, Chouji?" Naruto had jumped down and started running toward him the moment the fight was declared over. Sakura had followed him after calling after him exasperatedly a few times, and had yet to reach them.

"Yeah, I'm okay," the stout ninja said. "Looks like I fail again, though." He scratched the back of his head.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Naruto told him. "Those guys were really strong. Even Ino and Sakura-chan lost."

"Thanks a lot, Naruto," quipped Sakura, who had arrived in time to hear his comment. He waved his hands in front of him in defense.

"Ah, I just meant that if you guys all lost, then those three aren't normal genin," he stated quickly. Sakura seemed to accept this.

"We should get out of here," she said. "They're going to want to start the second round. I'm going to go see how Ino's doing. Do you two want to come or are you going to stay and watch?"

"I think I'll go see Ino," Chouji said. "Let her know I lost, too. It'll make her feel better." Sakura couldn't help but giggle, and the two of them started off.

"Hey, wait for me!" Naruto called after them, jogging to catch up.

"You aren't going to watch the fights, Naruto?" Sakura asked him.

"Nah. I know who'll win anyway. I'll come back to watch the finals, since those snow ninjas are the only ones I really want to see."

"Ino? Are you awake?"

The blonde kunoichi slowly opened her eyes at the sound of a familiar feminine voice calling her name. When she did, she saw the faces of Sakura, Naruto, Chouji, and…Shikamaru?

"Shikamaru?" she asked, still woozy. It hurt her jaw to talk, and her arms stung like crazy. "I didn't know you were here."

"We just got here," he said coolly. "That damn mission took longer than we thought it would." Ino looked up and saw Asuma in the room as well, leaning against a wall. "Sorry I couldn't watch your fight. I heard you lost." His mouth turned slightly upward at the end into a typical Shikamaru grin.

"Yeah, I did." Normally, she would have yelled at him, or smacked him, or both, but she didn't really feel up to it. He seemed to notice.

"Hey, you all right?" he asked, sounding a little more concerned than usual.

"I'll be fine. I just want to know where that girl learned her taijutsu," she said.

"You should've seen it, Shikamaru," Naruto said in his usual excited tone. "They each fought a snow ninja. These guys were amazing. And one of them was a rookie!" Unnoticed to everyone but Ino, Sakura's eyebrow was twitching.

"You don't say?" the languid ninja replied in a disinterested tone. "Snow ninjas, huh?"

"Yeah. We have to go back out and watch the finals. It'll be great!"

Shikamaru regarded the blonde boy for a minute. "Whatever."

"The second round should be over by now," Naruto said after a good while in Ino's infirmary room. "Are you guys gonna come?" They seemed a little hesitant.

"Might as well," Chouji said after a time. He stood up. "You gonna be all right, Ino?"

"I _told_ you, I'll be _fine._" She sounded annoyed, but it was obvious even to Naruto that she was enjoying the attention.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, turning to the boy in question. He turned his gaze away from Naruto to look at Ino.

"Oh, just go!" the injured girl said. "Sakura doesn't care about the finals, so I won't be wasting away or anything."

"Fine, whatever," Shikamaru said. The three boys left the room to head for the arena.

"Honestly," Ino muttered as they were leaving. Sakura giggled a little.

"Oi! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called as they neared the jounin in the stands. "Have the finals started yet?"

"The tournament is over," he informed them. All of them – even Shikamaru – were surprised.

"Over?" he clarified. Kakashi nodded. "How?"

"The three snow ninjas each defeated their opponents easily," the jounin explained. "And then Shiro and Teiko said there would be no point in fighting any further, since Aomaru would beat them and they needn't give away any more of their techniques when they knew what the outcome was going to be. They conceded the tournament to him."

If the three boys were shocked before, they were surprised out of their skins now. No one in the entire arena had expected anything like that to happen.

"Figures I'd match up against the strongest one," Chouji grumbled.

Shikamaru stared across the arena, where the snow ninjas were meeting up and preparing to leave.

"They beat Ino, Chouji and Sakura, and then advance to the final round like it was nothing, and then they say that they don't even need to fight to know which one of them would win. Who are these guys?"

"Shikamaru!" He turned his head around to see Chouji calling him. He and Naruto were already a ways away. "There's nothing to watch, so we're going back to Ino's room now! Come on!"

He stole another glance at the snow ninjas just before they disappeared, and then turned back to his friend.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm coming."

Okay, chapter one is done. Big thanks to Ski, my prereader. Also, best of luck to SJR, who would have been my other prereader but is having personal troubles right now.

Did you guys like the new characters? Don't worry, they aren't going to be the freaky, god-like author-created-characters that you see everywhere, and none of them is even close to an SI. I just had to establish how strong they were, and by association the ninja village they come from.

I apologize for the excessive use of Japanese. It's the way I'm used to the characters talking. P

As promised, I've provided a translation guide below. Some of the terms came from kanji combinations, so I'm not really sure how they would really be pronounced. In these cases, I just guessed. If anyone knows where I was wrong on one, let me know and I'll fix it. Also, if there was a term in the story that you don't know and I forgot to translate, let me know about that too. My email is – Roughly "Do your best."

Kusagakure – The village hidden in the grass.

Yukigakure – The village hidden in the snow.

Meimei no Jutsu – Invisibility Technique

Hyouton: Koori no kaze no Jutsu – Ice Element: Ice Wind Technique

Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu – Fire Element: Large Fireball Technique

Hyouton: Hyounami no Jutsu – Ice Element: Ice Wave Technique

Tong Bei Quan – Chinese fighting style. "White Ape Fist." (Quan is pronounced "Chuan")

Shimo – Frost / Bitter cold (the "da" in Teiko's surname was added to make it a name.)

Kunoichi – Female Ninja

Doton: Ishi no Genkotsu no Jutsu – Earth Element: Stone Fist Technique

Yukimura Ninpou: Hito Bunshin no Jutsu – Yukimura ninja style: Human Clone Technique


	3. Chapter 2: Missions

Author's Notes: This chapter jumps ahead a little. A lot will do that. You'll find I like to do a lot of storytelling through flashbacks. Remember that fanfiction is not only done for love of the show and the characters, but as a method to practice writing techniques and to try out new ones.

Anyway, that's enough preaching for today. I didn't really know how I wanted to go into this chapter other than the first scene until the day before I started writing it, so it might be interesting. The beginning I've had planned for a while, rest of it I just kind of pulled out of my ass, and I'm not sure yet what it has to do with anything. =P

Let me know what you thought when you're done.

Koorikage Chapter 2 – Missions

     The smell of roasted meat filled Sakura's nostrils, but she wasn't enjoying it as much as she felt she should. There was something bothering her.

     "We need more!" Chouji bellowed as he ate at nearly twice his usual pace.

     "Eat up, you earned it!" Asuma encouraged. He'd decided to treat them all to yakiniku (and convinced Kakashi to chip in on the bill). Naruto and Shikamaru had of course been invited as well.

     "I still can't believe we all made it!" Sakura exclaimed. "I mean, we all lost!"

     "So did Shikamaru," Asuma pointed out. He received a mild grunt from said young man in response.

     "The reasons for your promotions have already been explained to you," Kakashi said calmly.

     "Yeah, yeah," Ino said. "But I still don't see how 'handling ourselves well' being able to 'recognize our own limitations' makes up for the fact that we lost so badly."

     "If you were leading a team, those are very important things," Asuma said. "Knowing when to back off and wait for a better opportunity is an important attribute if you don't want to get your team killed. And Ino and Sakura, your techniques would be excellent when used in conjunction with other members of a team."

     "Besides, those snow ninjas were kinda creepy," Naruto added. "You shouldn't feel bad getting beaten by them."

     "They were awfully strong for genin," Shikamaru absentmindedly agreed. "I wonder what the rest of their village is like."

     "It's great and everything," Ino went on with their earlier discussion, choosing not to think just how frightening upper level snow ninja might be, "but I can't help thinking that we were promoted because Konoha needs more chuunin on account of Orochimaru and the Akatsuki."

     "That is true," Kakashi conceded, "But even so you would not have been promoted had you not proven you were deserving. Remember, Hokage-sama is not the final say in this case."

     "What are you guys worrying about?" Chouji questioned as he shoveled more meat into his mouth. "We got promoted. Isn't that what you wanted?"

     "Yeah, I guess so…" Sakura trailed off. An encouraging smile from Naruto as he ate wouldn't allow her to complain any more.

     "Haha. Chouji's just excited because he already has an assignment," Ino teased.

     "And a safe one, too," Shikamaru pointed out, somewhat annoyed. "You aren't really putting your life on the line teaching at the academy."

     "Be careful what you say, Shikamaru," Ino joked. "Chouji's getting the new young kids just coming into the academy. Some of them might get you as a jounin instructor someday. You don't want him telling them bad things about you." She stuck her tongue out at him.

     "Hmph," Shikamaru leaned back in his seat. "Like I'll ever be a jounin."

     "Huh?" Naruto questioned, his mouth full of food. "Why wouldn't you?"

     "After all the trouble I went through becoming a chuunin? Are you kidding? I'd never even take the test."

     Asuma and even Kakashi chuckled.

     "What?" Shikamaru prodded.

     "The jounin exam isn't something you take voluntarily," Asuma said. He grinned. Shikamaru didn't seem pleased.

     "What? What does that mean?" he demanded.

     "We can't tell you any more," Kakashi said. "You'll find out eventually, if any of you ever do become jounin."

     "If you can't take the test willingly, then how do you know you're taking it?" Naruto asked.

     "Naruto no baka," Sakura said. "Kakashi-sensei just finished saying that they can't tell us." The two jounin couldn't help but laugh again.

     "Well what if I don't ever get to take it?" Naruto continued. "How am I supposed to become Hokage if I can't become a jounin?"

     Kakashi and Asuma smiled, while Sakura, Shikamaru and Ino each muttered something incomprehensible. Chouji kept eating.

     "Wait a minute," Sakura said after a few moments of silence. "If Chouji is going to teach at the academy, doesn't that mean your team is breaking up?"

     Ino and Shikamaru regarded one another for a moment. Chouji looked up briefly as well.

     "Yeah, it does," Shikamaru said. "It happens.  They need people to teach at the academy. Not every team gets to stay together once they've been promoted, you know. With Chouji's condition, we were pretty much expecting it."

     Chouji paused in eating and looked a little uncomfortable, so Ino moved on with the conversation. "I'm surprised they didn't ask you, Sakura," she said.

     "They were going to," Kakashi broke in. "I was there at the meeting when it was discussed. It was determined that her genjutsu skills were invaluable to important missions and could not be spared. So she was not asked to teach."

     Sakura blushed a little. It was at that moment that Maito Gai decided to appear in the restaurant…right in front of their table, no less.

     "Ah, there you are," he said, flashing his usual grin as he did so. "Hokage-sama wants to see the two of you," he said, pointing at Naruto and Shikamaru. He seemed to notice Sakura and Ino as an afterthought. "I believe she has a mission for you two as well."

     "Gai…what are you doing here?" Kakashi asked.

     "Ah, Kakashi, my eternal rival!" Gai exclaimed happily, turning to face the gray-haired ninja. "I am here because Hokage-sama was briefing me on a mission, and she asked me to bring in these two young boys to aid in it."

     "We're going on a mission with you?" Shikamaru asked, not sounding particularly thrilled about the idea. Gai shook his head.

     "No, not with me."

     "Then with whom?"

     "You will be traveling with my three former students," Gai informed him.

     "Hyuuga Neji's team?" Naruto inquired.

     "Yes, that is correct," Gai replied.

     "Yatta! This'll be great, Shikamaru!" the blonde ninja exclaimed.

     "Why do you always have to get so excited about everything?" Shikamaru grumbled.

     "Ano…Gai-sensei?" Sakura asked. "Did Hokage-sama say what either of these two missions were?"

     "No, she did not. Apparently they are both top-secret. B-class and A-class," Gai said.

     "Chuunin on an A-class mission?" Asuma questioned.

     Kakashi took a glance at Naruto and then at Shikamaru. "I think they can handle it," he said. "It won't be their first, after all."

     "I agree, Kakashi," said Gai. "You are excellent in gauging the strength of your students. It is why you are worthy to be my rival." He flashed a blinding grin and gave a thumbs-up. Kakashi sweatdropped.

     "We should go, ne?" Ino said, standing up. "Hokage-sama is probably waiting for us."

     "But I'm not finished!" Chouji lamented.

     "You can stay with us, Chouji," Asuma said. "But these four do need to be moving along." Then he turned to them. "We'll see you later. Congratulations again. And good luck on your missions." He waved, as did Kakashi, who was at the moment being harassed by Gai for another fight.

     During the walk to Tsunade's office, Ino was nearly bouncing with excitement.

     "Our first mission as chuunin, ne, Sakura?" She turned to look at her friend, a big smile on her face. It was unnerving to Sakura, who was feeling nowhere near as confident for some reason.

     "Hai," she answered, managing a small smile.

     "And a B-class, too! I've never been on one without help." She turned to Naruto and Shikamaru. "Are they hard?"

     "Nah! Not at all," Naruto declared confidently, his arms behind his head. Shikamaru spared him a small annoyed glance before replying to Ino's question.

     "It depends," he said. He noticed he had not only Ino's full attention but now Sakura's as well. "Not only on what the mission is, but on who you're going with. You two work well together, and your skills can compliment each other. If it's a big mission you might not be the only ones going, either. Hope that whoever you're going with is easy to get along with and that they can pull their own weight."

     "Yeah, what he said!" Naruto chimed in. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

     "I wonder what these missions are…" Sakura thought aloud.

     "We'll find out soon, won't we?" Shikamaru remarked, looking up at the tall building in front of them. "We're here."

     Sakura paced nervously, and Ino was tapping her foot. They'd just been told they were to be assigned a B-rank mission only hours after learning they'd become chuunin. It was a little rattling. Add to that the fact that they still had no idea what the mission was, and they were in a world of stress.

     The moment they'd arrived, Naruto and Shikamaru had been whisked into Tsunade's office, where Neji, Lee and Tenten apparently were already waiting. That was ten minutes ago, and they'd heard nothing and seen nobody since.

     "What's taking them so long?" Ino asked finally, more to break the silence than anything else. Sakura stopped in her pacing.

     "I don't know, but I wish they'd hurry up. I'm still nervous about our mission and I'd like to at least know what it is."

     "Well theirs is an A-rank, right?" Ino asked.

     Sakura gulped slightly and nodded. Then she managed a small laugh and a smile. "Naruto must be thrilled."

     Ino smiled as well. "I'll bet he is. And I'll bet Shikamaru is wishing he never got up this morning at all." This got them both laughing, but it was at that moment that Tsunade's door opened and five chuunin and the Hokage herself came striding out.

     "Now remember," Tsunade was saying to them. "This mission is absolutely secret. No one is to know about it. Understand?" It looked like she winked to Naruto, or maybe Shikamaru, but Sakura wasn't sure…and she couldn't imagine why.

     "Yes, Hokage-sama," Neji said with a small bow. Then he turned to Naruto and Shikamaru. "We'll meet you at the main gate at sunset." The two boys nodded, and Neji and his team left.

     "I'll be with you in a minute, girls," Tsunade said, returning to her office.

     "What was that wink about?" Ino asked. Apparently Sakura wasn't the only one who had noticed.

     "She said we could tell you guys where we're going," Naruto said with his trademark grin. "Well, not so much that, but that she knew we were going to anyway."

     "Oh?" Ino sounded excited. "Where?"

     "Yukigakure," Shikamaru answered with his usual air of disinterest. Ino's expression froze instantly, and Sakura felt her heart drop down into her stomach. Un unpleasant memory of extreme cold came unbidden to her mind, as well as the frightening image of piercing blue eyes, with all of the intensity of Naruto's and none of the latter's warmth. They were going _where_?

     "The snow village?" She asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure if her concern was coming through in her voice or not, but Naruto's response confirmed that it must have been.

     "Don't worry, Sakura-chan," he said. "It's an information-gathering mission. There shouldn't be any trouble."

     "Then why are you going?" she asked. Information gathering wasn't exactly Naruto's best skill. He could do it, but not as well as some of the other ninjas Tsunade could have chosen.

     "He's our security trump card," Shikamaru said. "In case something _does_ happen." That didn't make her feel any better.

     "Ah, I see," she said. Throughout this whole exchange, Ino had remained silent, her eyes blank. Sakura kept having visions of herself and her friends being beaten by genin younger than themselves, and she imagined her blonde companion was experiencing something similar.

     "Those guys were really strong," Sakura said, now finding that she had to make an effort to keep her voice even. "And they were just genin. What happens if you're discovered and the village attacks you?"

     "That's why we're going," Shikamaru said. "Apparently this village is being viewed as a possible threat. No one has ever really heard anything about them, and here their genin are above the skill level any genin should be at."

     "Tsunade-baba says she's pretty sure we didn't even get to see their best stuff during the tournament," Naruto said. All this wasn't doing anything to make Sakura's feeling of uneasiness go away. She worried about her friends after all, and she had a lot of them going on this mission: Shikamaru, Lee-san…and Naruto.

     "We should get going," Shikamaru said, glancing at Ino, who had still not moved or even made so much as a sound. "I don't want to be rushed when it's time to leave." Naruto seemed to agree with him, and the two of them headed off.

     "Good luck with your mission!" The blonde boy called back, waving over his shoulder. "We'll see you when we get back, and you can tell us how it went!"

     Sakura couldn't really do more than wave. The shock was still settling in. This was an incredibly dangerous mission…more so than any mission any of them had ever been sent on before, with one possible exception. If anything happened…

     She heard a hiccup noise beside her, and turned to see Ino trembling ever so slightly, her fists clenched down at her sides.

     "Shikamaru!" the blonde girl suddenly yelled. She was still facing the door, her hands were still clenched, and she had her back to the two boys. They stopped at her outburst. They didn't turn around either, but Shikamaru turned his head and looked over his shoulder.

     "What?"

     Instead of answering his question right away, Ino seemed to tremble a little more before taking a deep breath. Then she whirled around and shouted at him.

     "You had better come back! Do you hear me?" She appeared very angry, but to Sakura the anger seemed forced. Maybe her friend was having just as much trouble with a teammate going on such a potentially fatal mission as she was. She expected Shikamaru to brush Ino off and give one of his "yeah, whatever" replies like always, but he didn't. He turned around to face her, and remained silent for a few moments before saying anything.

     Finally, the shadow ninja spoke. "Yeah, I'll come back," he said. His mouth turned upwards into the tiniest hint of a smirk that could only be delivered by Shikamaru. Ino looked a good deal…something. Relieved? Maybe that was it.

     "Good," was all she said.

     Naruto had been fidgeting the whole time, looking like he was very uncomfortable with the whole exchange. "Let's go, already!" he wailed. "I've said my good-byes already and I look like an idiot just standing here."

     Shikamaru snorted. "Fine, we're going." They turned to leave again, and the brown-haired boy gave a wave over his shoulder. At least Ino wasn't trembling anymore.

     It was a good five minutes before Tsunade's door opened again and the fifth Hokage came out to greet them. During that time, neither girl had said a word, both of them still glued to where they had been when the boys walked off, lost in their own thoughts. Tsunade seemed to pick up on this and chuckled. This alerted them to her presence and they jumped and spun around, startled.

     "Hokage-sama!" They greeted simultaneously, bowing deeply.

     "Now now, that's enough," Tsunade said, motioning for them to stand up. "How did the good-byes go?" her expression was one of amusement; neither Sakura nor Ino could figure out why.

     "You're sending them to Yukigakure?" Sakura questioned. It was bold of her, especially considering who she was talking to. "Don't you think that's too dangerous? And there are only five of them! What if something happens?"

     Tsunade didn't seem flustered at all. In fact, she seemed even more amused now.

     "I don't think you have to be concerned about them," she said. "They'll be just fine. And Neji's team is with them; you haven't got a thing to worry about."

     Sakura was about to point out that she had meant she was worried about Neji's team as well, but she didn't get the chance.

     "Now then," Tsunade continued. "As for your mission. I've sent for the third member of your party and she should be arriving shortly. Would you like to come in and sit down while we wait?"

     Both girls shook of their anxiety in order to utter a thanks. After all, even under the current circumstances they had to behave properly in front of the Hokage.

     It was a few more minutes before the final member of their team arrived, and when she did, both girls gasped. It was someone they knew fairly well.

     "Hinata?" Ino exclaimed. The young Hyuuga girl looked at them, a piece of her childhood shyness still visible in her expression.

     "Hello, Ino-san. Sakura-san," she said, greeting them both in turn. It was a pleasant surprise, at least. Neither of them had worked with Hinata since the chuunin exam a year and a half ago when the dark haired girl had been promoted.

     "Since you know each other already, I'll get right to it." Tsunade was all business now. Hinata came in and sat with the two of them in front of the Hokage's desk.

     "The Daimyo of this country has been targeted for assassination," the older woman explained. She held up a hand, indicating that she wanted the girls to restrain their shock until she was finished. "We don't know who's behind it," she continued, "All we know is that there's a conspiracy in the works. The Daimyo, Urashima Hideyoshi, was given an anonymous tip that someone in his court was plotting to kill him. He contacted this village, asking for ninja protection. Unfortunately, the only way for us to get close enough to protect him without being noticed is to send in kunoichi disguised as geisha." The girls' eyes went wide. "Normally, I'd want to send in more experienced ninja on a mission like this, but the daimyo is known for his preference of young girls, so any older-looking geisha would be an obvious giveaway. As such, I'd like to teach you each a new skill that will hopefully help protect you should anything unexpected happen." She took a brief pause to let it all sink in.

     "Geisha?" Ino asked incredulously. Tsunade nodded. "Who does that anymore?"

     "You'll find that the practice is still fairly common amongst many of the more powerful daimyo throughout the world, even today," the Hokage said.

     That didn't make Ino any happier. But then something else the older woman had said struck her. "Wait," she said. "Did you say you were going to teach us a new skill?"

     "Yes, I did."

     "What kind of new skill, Hokage-sama?" Sakura asked.

     "Not one skill," Tsunade corrected, "a different skill for each of you. That will allow for a different range of abilities, and it won't require you all to learn multiple skills in such a short time. I have chosen techniques that I believe you will be able to master quickly, based on my assessment of your current abilities. You are to meet me in training field number 34 at dawn tomorrow, where I will personally instruct you. After that, you will have one week before you leave for the daimyo's castle. Are there any questions?" They were all nearly frozen. "Good. I will see you all tomorrow morning then. Get a good night's sleep." She grinned. "You'll need it." With that, she dismissed them.

     Once the door to the office closed behind them and they were safely out of Tsunade's earshot, Sakura was the one to break the silence. "What do you think?" she asked.

     "Geisha?" Ino questioned again, disgusted.

     "Well, it was going to happen eventually," Sakura shrugged. Every kunoichi in the village had been told early on that some missions might arise when she would have to assume the guise of a geisha. Still, it was nothing anybody looked forward to. And geisha were so rare anymore that such missions hardly ever came up.

     "How do you know?" Ino prodded. "The odds of getting a mission like this are incredibly low, even for older kunoichi." Sakura just shrugged again and the three began walking.

     "Ano…" Hinata interrupted, "do you think we will have to perform…a geisha's duties?" She looked extremely nervous, and tapped her index fingers together. It was a gesture she hadn't performed in years. The other two girls' eyes shot wide. They hadn't even _thought _of _that._

     "Um…" Ino stammered. Her face was scarlet.

     "I…don't think we will," Sakura said, albeit unsurely. "We're only _pretending_ to be geisha after all, right? And the daimyo will know, so he won't…make us do anything. Right?" She looked at Ino for support. After a few awkward seconds of silence, the blonde girl merely laughed it all off.

     "Of course!" she said, still laughing. "He wouldn't be dumb enough to pull something like that when we're all that stands between him and assassination! Don't worry, Hinata. We'll be fine." She slapped the dark haired girl on the back, and Hinata seemed to cheer up slightly.

     "So, what are you two going to do tonight?" the demure girl asked. Sakura and Ino looked at each other.

     "Asuma-sensei and Chouji are probably gone by now," Ino said. Sakura nodded in agreement. "What time is it?" she asked as an afterthought. Sakura picked up on what she was thinking and looked out a window as they passed one.

     "It's almost sunset," she said.

     "They'll be leaving soon."

     "Mm."

     Hinata was a little confused. "Ano…who is leaving soon?" Sakura and Ino looked at each other for a moment.

     "Should we tell her?" Ino asked.

     "Well, Tsunade-sama said it was supposed to be a secret…" Sakura hesitated.

     "Yeah, but she let them tell us," the blonde pointed out. "Besides, Hinata will be with us the whole time, and I think we can trust her. Right, Hinata?"

     The third girl was taken a bit by surprise at the question. "Um…hai!"

     "You see?" Ino said, turning back to Sakura.

     "I guess," she finally relented. She turned to Hinata. "Naruto and Shikamaru have been sent with Neji's team to the village hidden in the snow," she said.

     "Oh?" Hinata asked. She seemed interested, but not at all worried.

     "That doesn't shock you?" Ino asked incredulously. Hinata didn't seem to get what she was hinting at.

     "Should it?" she asked, confused.

     "Oh, that's right," Sakura remembered. "You weren't at the chuunin tournament, were you?" Hinata shook her head.

     "The shinobi from Yukigakure are incredibly strong," Ino explained. "And they're being viewed as a potential threat. Shikamaru, Naruto and the others have been sent on an A-rank mission to determine if the snow ninja are a danger to us."

     Hinata's expression now changed to one very similar to what Ino's and Sakura's had been when they found out.

     "R-really?" she stammered. The other two just nodded. "Do you think they will be okay?"

     There was a pause, but Sakura finally answered. "Aa. I'm sure they will. Hokage-sama said not to worry, and so did Naruto. We can trust them." She smiled. It was all as much to reassure herself and Ino as it was for Hinata.

     That night, Sakura had trouble falling asleep. Visions kept flashing through her mind; visions of a young boy taller than she was performing jutsu she'd never heard of, visions of her best friend being beaten by a girl whose taijutsu was seemingly untouchable, visions of a boy with terrifying eyes literally making a clone of himself…visions of her closest friend and teammate walking off without a care in the world to face all three of them – and a whole village full of ninjas just like them.

     Finally, she had to rely on her last resort. Sasuke had taught it to her once, before he betrayed her and everyone she loved. He had learned it from watching Naruto's battle with Gaara of the sand – the battle where he gave everything he had to save her, or so Sasuke had said.

     She performed the seals for the jutsu that forced its user to sleep. Sasuke had taught it to her because she'd had trouble sleeping in the weeks following Sandaime Hokage's death. Instantly, she was unconscious.

_     Sakura froze in horror. "What do you mean he's gone, Kakashi-sensei?"_

_     "Sasuke escaped from his holding cell last night," Kakashi explained. "There was only one ANBU and a medical nin guarding him, since it was assumed he wouldn't even wake up for several more days. Somehow he managed to break out of his cell and kill both of them. He obviously caught them by surprise, though how a genin could take on an ANBU is beyond me."_

_     "He probably transformed again," Naruto said darkly._

_     "Transformed?" Kakashi asked._

_     "Something about that curse seal thing. It lets them turn into monsters. Sasuke was really strong when he did. I almost didn't beat him."_

_     "Well there's no telling where he is now," Kakashi said. "We couldn't spare any extra security for him under the circumstances, so we don't know which way he went, although we have a good idea."_

_     "I'll get him," Naruto practically growled. "I'll drag that bastard back here as many times as it takes!"_

_     "No!" Sakura suddenly yelled. "Naruto, you're still exhausted and injured from the last time, and there isn't anyone who could even go with you except me, and I wouldn't be any help at all!"_

_     "Sakura-chan," Naruto started, but Kakashi cut him off._

_     "She's right. As much as I don't like it, there's nothing we can do about Sasuke right now. We gave it a shot, but we just don't have the manpower to do it again. He'll be classified as a missing nin and we'll catch up to him eventually."_

_     "But…Kakashi-sensei," Naruto started to protest._

_     "That's enough for now," their jounin leader told them. "I've told you what I came to tell you and now I have to go. You both should go get some rest. And don't go chasing after Sasuke." With that, he was gone in a puff of smoke. The two genin stood in silence for a few moments before Naruto spoke up._

_     "Hey, Sakura-chan," he said weakly._

_     "Nani?" she had to fight to make her voice come out as more than a whisper. For some reason she didn't feel like she had the strength to do anything._

_     "Gomen," was all her companion said as he hung his head._

_     "What? What for?"_

_     "I promised I'd bring him back. I meant for good."_

_     "Naruto…"_

_     "I remembered what you told me that one time. About how Orochimaru was trying to tempt Sasuke." Sakura froze again. She hadn't been expecting that. "I didn't put it together with the curse seal until earlier, in the hospital. I should have."_

_     "Naruto, why are you saying this?" she asked, worried at the melancholy tone he was using._

_     "I told you not to worry. I said that Sasuke was made of stronger stuff, and that he'd never give into something like that. I promised you that everything would be okay. And then it wasn't. And then I promised I'd bring him back for you, and I couldn't even do that. I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."_

     Sakura awoke feeling shaken. While it was nothing new to have cohesive dreams about her past, it had been a long time since the last one, and it was definitely rare to have one so clear. Why was she remembering that day, of all days, now of all times?

     Feeling strange, Sakura brought her hands to her face to learn that – just as on that day by the bridge after Naruto's apology – she was crying.

Okay, originally this was meant to be much longer. The girls' mission (the next chapter) was all supposed to be here. However, it was getting too long, and I was having trouble tying it all together, which is one of the reasons it's been taking so long. So I decided to split it. Probably not in half, as the next chapter will still most likely be longer than this one once it's done, but this was the best splitting point I could find.

Reviews are always appreciated, as are plugs to your friends.


	4. Chapter 3: Geisha

Hello all. Right off the bat, I'd like to say that the way things are set up in the castle are obviously not in line with historical Japan. Since this is common in Naruto, that was intentional. I would appreciate it if I didn't get a bunch of reviews and emails telling me I got the samurai/daimyo system all wrong. I'll put this notice again in my end notes, since some people only read one or the other.

To those of you who actually read my author profile, you know why it took so long to update the last time. This all was supposed to be part of that chapter, but I just couldn't focus and decided to split it. Just as well, since this part is still horrendously long. The end here is one of those scenes I've had in my head since the idea of writing a Naruto fic first popped into my head.

Oh, by the way, so was that scene outside Tsunade's door in chapter 2.

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Chapter 3 – Geisha

Sakura approached training field 34 wearily. Her vivid dream had made it very difficult to fall back asleep, and she didn't want to force herself twice in one night. So she trudged along, hoping she would arrive on time, but somehow not as worried about it as she felt she should be.

"I see everyone's here," came the Hokage's voice as Sakura approached the three figures standing in the field. There was no trace of agitation in the older woman's voice, so at least she wasn't in trouble. "That means we can begin the training," Tsunade continued. The girls all stood there, not really sure what they were supposed to do, or what they were about to learn.

"I will be teaching you techniques that will be useful on this mission and future missions, and techniques which I believe you are well suited to learn. Ino." Being called be her given name seemed to have unnerved Ino just a bit, but she calmed down when she realized it was a gesture of friendship from the older woman. She stepped forward.

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"I will be teaching you a strength-enhancing jutsu. Physically, you are the strongest kunoichi in the village of your generation. This was true for me as well. The basis of this technique is to use chakura to enhance the capabilities of your muscles for a short time. If you train properly, your muscles will actually get stronger under normal circumstances as well, and you won't need to use the jutsu very often. It can be performed with or without seals, but with seals yields greater results. Do you understand?"

Ino hesitated for only a moment before answering, "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Very good. Hinata." The dark-haired girl stepped forward nervously. "I will be teaching you a basic healing jutsu. I understand you have already learned a few, is that correct?" Hinata nodded.

"H-hai."

"Good. The jutsu I will be teaching you will be one that uses your chakura to speed up the cell's regeneration rate in a given area, allowing wounds to heal faster. Internal and external wounds can both be treated with this technique. Do you understand?"

"H-hai, Hokage-sama."

"Very good." Tsunade smiled. "Sakura." Sakura gulped and stepped forward. She didn't have any special talents, except perhaps genjutsu. Was Tsunade-sama going to teach her a new illusory technique?

"You will have perhaps the most difficult task of all," Tsunade said. "I've chosen you to learn this jutsu because your chakura control abilities are beyond those of anyone else in your generation, indeed beyond those of most people in this village. The technique you will learn requires a great deal of control, but it also requires a great deal of strength and stamina – an area I know you need some practice in. Are you prepared?" Sakura gulped again and merely nodded. The older woman smiled again. "Very well. I will teach you Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

Sakura blinked and stared blankly. Kuchiyose no Jutsu was a jounin level technique – and an extremely difficult one at that. While she was flattered that the Hokage felt she could learn it, she was at the same time quite certain that she couldn't. She knew Naruto could summon frogs, but he was also a lot stronger than she'd ever be. Besides, the biggest one she'd ever heard of him summoning was the one he told her about when he fought Sasuke three years ago. What would Tsunade-sama teach her to summon?

"Hokage-sama…" she managed. She spared a glance at her teammates, who seemed as astounded as she at her given task.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to handle it," the older woman assured her with a smile. "Jiraiya said it took Naruto a month, but I think you'll be able to get a grip on it faster than that."

"A month? It took Naruto a whole month to learn it?"

"Well, Naruto never exactly was the fast learning type, ne?" Ino asked, making an attempt at lightening the mood a little bit. Sakura didn't feel like laughing.

"What will I summon?" she asked.

"You'll summon the same creatures that I summon," Tsunade said, pulling a huge scroll out a bag at her feet that Sakura hadn't noticed. "Slugs." All three girls face-faulted.

"Slugs?" Ino shouted incredulously once she'd recovered. Sakura was glad her friend was doing it; she wouldn't have had the courage to question the older woman on such an issue. "What good are slugs to anybody?"

"Why, they're plenty useful, Ino-chan," Tsunade said with a wide grin. "They excel in stealth, and therefore are good for information gathering. They can also assist in removing wounded companions from the battlefield, and although not exactly built for it, they can help in a battle in a pinch." The girls were silenced.

"All right then," Tsunade continued. "Sakura, you need to cut your finger, and add your name and handprint to the contract." She unrolled the scroll, and the girls could see a number of names written in blood with handprints underneath, Tsunade's being the most recent addition. Sakura did as she was told, and then after learning the hand seals from her new sensei and summoning a (very small) slug to make sure she had it right, was left to practice on her own. The Hokage would check her progress at the end of each day, but the other two girls required more direct instruction and supervision for the techniques they were going to learn.

And so it was that for the next week, Sakura practiced summoning slugs. She couldn't help but feel silly doing it, and even after Tsunade's explanation, she still found herself agreeing with Ino that slugs were pretty useless creatures.

Still, the technique was incredibly exhausting. After each summoning attempt she had to rest for at least a half hour before trying it again, and after four days she had yet to summon a slug larger than her hand. No matter what Tsunade said, Sakura doubted that a slug of that size would be of any help to anybody.

On the night of the fourth day of their training, the girls had decided to meet for dinner at the only place they could currently afford: Ichiraku Ramen. This turned out to be a bad idea, as Sakura had been effectively distracted from worrying about Naruto and the others all week so far, but coming to her friend's favorite food stop brought her thoughts instantly back to him, and the perilous mission he was on.

"How do you think they're doing?" Sakura asked Ino somewhat weakly after the three of them had ordered (large bowls rather than their usual small – they were too exhausted and starving to worry about their calorie intake). There was no need to say whom she was talking about. Even Hinata picked right up on the discussion. Ino took a noticeable pause before responding.

"I think they're fine," she said. "After all, they probably haven't even arrived there yet, right?" she tried for a smile, but it didn't come off very well. Sakura instantly felt bad for being a buzz kill on their evening out.

"Yes, Ino-san is right," Hinata said. "I'm sure they are still fine." It looked like something was troubling her.

"Hinata?" Sakura prodded. "What's wrong?" The dark haired girl looked into her bowl that had just arrived, stammering for her words.

"It's just that…Shino-kun and Kiba-kun were sent on a mission as well," Hinata said. "They have to track down a sound spy that is supposedly lurking outside the village. No one knows if there are more out there, and they could be in great danger."

"That's awful, Hinata," Sakura said.

"That's not what's bothering me," the other said.

"Oh?" Sakura was confused.

"Do you think it's wrong…am I horrible for worrying more about Naruto-kun than I am for my own teammates? For all I know, they might be in just as much danger."

Sakura felt a pang in her chest. All her empathy went out to this girl in front of her. And at the same time, it warmed her heart to hear that she was so worried about Naruto. If anyone in the whole world deserved to have someone care about them so much, it was him.

"I don't think that's wrong at all, Hinata," Sakura said, ignoring her own food for the moment and putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder for support. "It's never wrong to worry or care about someone. And you can't help it if you care about Naruto."

"Yeah, besides," Ino said from the other side of Sakura with a mouth full of ramen noodles. She slurped them down before continuing. "The fact that you're worried about it at all means you care a lot about your teammates too." She smiled widely as if that made all the sense in the world…and in a way, it did.

"Arigatou, Sakura-san, Ino-san." Hinata smiled at them both and began to eat.

----------

"That was great!" exclaimed Ino as the three of them walked down the street after their meal. "I can't believe how famished I was after all that training!"

"How is training going for the two of you?" Sakura asked.

"Pretty well, actually. I'm definitely feeling stronger for one, and Hinata managed to fix my leg when I accidentally slipped and cut it open yesterday."

"Anou…it wasn't a very big wound, Ino-san," Hinata said humbly.

"Nonsense! You did a great job with it!" The blonde girl encouraged. "What about you, Sakura? How's your _slug_ training going?" She pulled a face when she said the word "slug," and made no effort to hide her snickering.

"I can summon one big enough to sneak into your food," Sakura replied. Ino looked scandalized; Hinata just giggled.

"Well, unless you can get one that sniffs out assassins, I don't see how it's going to make this mission any easier," Ino said once she'd regained her composure…and finished mentally going back over eating her meal, making sure there had been no slugs in it.

----------

For the rest of the week they trained, and on the morning they were to leave, all three of them were up early. Their agreed meeting point was field 34, and they were all there well before the time they had been assigned to set off.

"Are you two ready?" Ino asked as they stood around waiting for the Hokage, who wanted to see them off personally.

"I suppose so," Sakura said. In truth, she hadn't had so many butterflies in her stomach about a mission in almost two years.

"Hai," was all Hinata said, giving a small nod. The conversation froze up, and they spent the next five minutes or so in an awkward silence waiting for the Hokage to arrive. When she did, it was to the great relief of all three young kunoichi.

"Are you girls ready?" she asked them. They all replied in the affirmative in unison and gave a respectful nod. "Good," Tsunade said.

"Now girls," the older woman went on, "I know this mission is going to make you feel uncomfortable. You're probably feeling it already. I was sent on a mission of this type when I was not much older than you, and I won't lie to you; I wasn't very happy about it." The legendary kunoichi's face was completely serious as she spoke to them, and they listened with rapt attention. "Just remember that it's only an act. It's no different from any other mission where you would have to play a role. And the Daimyo knows that if anything…unacceptable happens then his contract with the village is void and you are no longer obligated to protect him. More precautions than usual have been taken in that respect since you three are so young. You are to report to me directly when you return. Is that understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they answered.

"Very well. Good luck." She smiled at them in what seemed like an almost motherly way before they disappeared from the field.

----------

Tsunade stood watching as the three girls bounded away from her. She let out an almost inaudible sigh.

"_Sending three sixteen-year-old girls on a mission like that. We really are in a fix. Hopefully Jiraiya has found something. I don't know how much longer this can continue."_

She began a slow walk back toward her office, taking the scenic route that went past the memorial stone and her old genin training grounds. She paused at the training grounds as memories flowed unbidden to the front of her consciousness.

_"How much longer will you keep trying to destroy your old home…Orochimaru?"  
_

----------  
_   
_

"Did you see the look on Hokage-sama's face?" Ino asked as she and her two companions traveled effortlessly through the trees. "I don't think she likes this mission any more than we do."

"She doesn't," Sakura said bluntly. "Wasn't that obvious? It's why she taught us those new techniques. They're all jounin level, you know."

"I know that, but…what difference does that make? Naruto knew three jounin level techniques before his second chuunin exam." Sakura's face went blank, and Ino realized her faux pas too late. "Er…gomen, Sakura. I didn't mean to…"

"No, don't worry about it," Sakura waved her off, apparently needing only a moment to regain her composure. "We aren't going to worry about them, right? They'll be fine."

"Yes," Hinata agreed. "If we worry, it won't help them, and it will distract us from our own mission." This seemed to make sense.

"Right," Ino said.

"Anyway," Sakura went on, "Usually kunoichi are eighteen or nineteen before taking on a mission like this. It makes sense that she's uncomfortable sending us."

"I guess you're right," Ino agreed. "How long do you think it will take for us to get there?"

"Hinata, you've been there before, right?" Sakura asked the other girl. "How long of a trip would you say it is?"

"Anou…traveling at our current speed, we should make it there by around noon tomorrow if we stop to rest tonight."

"We probably should rest," Ino said. "No sense getting there while it's still dark, and we'll want to have our full reflexes in case anything happens." The other two nodded, and all trivial conversation ceased as the trip continued. Their rest was brief and simple; they couldn't afford attracting attention to themselves this far from the village, even if they were still in their own country. Spies were everywhere.

The next day when they arrived, they gathered outside away from the palace first so as to don their disguises and plan their mode of entry. If all went well, they would be able to place themselves inside with no one even noticing anything. The Daimyo was known for having many women inside his castle, so nobody would notice three more – especially three more who were well adept at keeping out of site when they wanted to.

"Remember, the first one to have…private time…with the Daimyo, let him know we're here and what's going on," Ino was explaining. She had been put in command of the mission. "Once we're settled in and in tune with the routines in the castle, we'll have to schedule it so that at least one of us is awake and near the Daimyo at all times."

"Anou, Ino-san," Hinata interjected, "if something were to happen, how will we get in touch with each other?"

Ino swore under her breath. "I've been trying to figure that out the whole time, but I haven't come up with anything."

"I have an idea," Sakura said.

"What is it?"

Sakura just grinned and bit the end of her thumb. Smearing some blood onto the back of her left wrist, she performed a few signs, and then slammed her left palm onto the ground, calling out "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" A slug no bigger than her thumb appeared. Ino – and even Hinata – sweatdropped.

"Um, Sakura…" Ino said flatly, "how is that supposed to help?"

"This is Jo," Sakura explained, holding up the tiny slug so they could see. "He was one of the first I was able to summon. Anyway, he's able to create a Bunshin of himself, and stay in direct mental contact with it. We could each carry one around, and if anything happened, we could let each other know immediately!" Ino's face visibly brightened, as did Hinata's.

"Forehead, you're a genius!" Ino exclaimed with a wide grin. Hinata nodded her concurrence. Jo proceeded to form two clones of himself, and one was handed to Ino and Hinata in turn.

"All right then, remember the entrance plan?" Ino said, going straight back to business. The other two nodded silently. "Good. I'll go first. Hinata, you follow when you see an opening, and Sakura you after that. Don't rush, we've got all day. As long as one of us is in there before dinner we'll be fine, and we'll definitely have all three of us in there by morning. It's time to split up, so I'll see you both inside. I'm going to scout for an empty chamber we can use as well."

"Good luck, Ino-san," Hinata said. Ino just grinned a grin that lit up her whole face and was off.

"I'll see you later then, Hinata," Sakura said as she began to set off for the other side of the castle. "Good luck to you too."

"And you, Sakura-san!" Hinata called after her quietly. Then she was alone.

----------

It took Ino almost a half hour before she was able to spot an opening into the castle that wouldn't get her noticed. When she finally did make it in, she immediately began scouting the layout of the building. Of course, to anyone else, she looked like just another young geisha walking to or from her duties – depending on which direction she was facing. She didn't worry about the same person noticing her multiple times, as she wasn't spotted very often to begin with.

It seemed that the castle contained a lot of wasted space. There were a lot of rooms that weren't really used for anything, save for making the structure bigger. This would serve her purpose well, as she and her team could use any one of them to operate from. They could even move around to avoid drawing unwanted attention. There was no telling how long they would be here before the assassins would make themselves known.

After several more hours which were hindered by constantly having to duck out of sight, she located the Daimyo's bedchamber. It was nearly dusk, so she could make her move soon. She just had to make sure there weren't any other geisha around that could interfere and stumble upon her true purpose. The irony struck Ino that she was playing her mission out exactly as she would had _she_ been the one assigned to assassinate the Daimyo.

As she was waiting for an opportunity to speak with the Daimyo, her Jo clone informed her that Hinata had successfully entered the castle. It was only a matter of time now before Sakura made her way in – with her Meimei no Jutsu she could basically enter any time she felt like it. As she was thinking this, she saw a samurai guard exchanging posts with another outside the Daimyo's door. This was her opportunity. Playing up her role, she strolled up to the door as if she belonged there. It must have been a regular occurrence, as neither guard spoke so much as a word, and she merely walked right in.

----------

While Sakura waited for word from her teammates, she found it was difficult to keep her mind from wandering. The dream of Naruto's apology for Sasuke's betrayal had visited her again the night before in the forest, and was still fresh in her mind. Why, of all times was she having these dreams again now? Was it because of the mission Naruto had been sent on. She knew that despite her brave face she feared for her friend's life, and indeed the lives of everyone on his team. But why would that make her remember such things?

Then there was Hinata. She'd been visibly upset when told about the mission to Yukigakure, as was well enough expected. But Sakura worried for her timorous friend. It was beyond obvious that Hinata cared for Naruto a great deal, so this must be equally difficult for her. On top of that, she apparently had her own teammates to worry about. As they all were growing up and gaining skill, they were being given more and more dangerous missions – as evidenced by the one she herself was on. This was the first time it had really hit home how dangerous their job was…but how many more times would there be? They weren't even jounin yet; harder and more perilous missions surely awaited them in the future. She would have to learn to deal with it now, or she'd never be able to survive as a ninja. From a few of the brief conversations they'd had over the past week, Sakura had a feeling that Ino was experiencing similar thoughts.

She had no idea how long she'd been there thinking, but she had to cut her reverie short as Jo informed her that Hinata was now inside the castle. That meant she could enter any time.

"_Ino said not to rush, but there's really no sense in staying out here. I might as well start making my way in now."_ She performed the seals necessary for her Meimei no Jutsu, and then, completely invisible and inaudible, strolled over to the castle and through the front gates.

----------

"So the Daimyo knows we're here and that everything is under control," Ino was explaining to them the next morning in the unused room they'd chosen to use for the time being. "I had to spend the night in his bedchamber to keep up appearances, but there was a futon he had that he gave me. I think he's just relieved that we've finally arrived.

"Anything else we should know?" Sakura asked.

"He wants to let his head of security in on the operation, but I told him that's probably not a good idea. We'll work best if absolutely no one knows we're here."

"Are we going to start taking watch shifts, then?" Hinata asked.

"Exactly," Ino confirmed. "Eight hours each. If you get pulled away for whatever reason, make sure Jo has contacted one of the others so we can take your place. Someone needs to be near the Daimyo at all times."

"Hai," said Sakura and Hinata in unison.

And so their mission set into a sequence of boring routine. Each day they would trade off shifts watching the Daimyo, while the other two either slept or gathered information on everyone else that came through the castle. Some of the regulars they became quite used to seeing, such as the head of security, Kishimoto Sanosuke, and the Daimyo's mistress, Erika. Or maybe she was his wife. They weren't really sure.

Day in, day out, life passed in the castle, and no signs of an assassination were evident anywhere. After three weeks, the girls were wondering if this was all some sort of hoax. Then, just by chance (they had switched rooms again that same night), they happened to overhear a conversation.

Hinata was on watch, while Ino and Sakura were in their new hiding place, trying to devise a more active way to draw out the assassins, when they had to duck out of the way when two people came bursting into the room. It was Kishimoto Sanosuke, the head of security, and the Daimyo's…female partner, Erika. They were speaking in hushed tones, but they were both clearly aggravated.

"I thought it would be finished by now," Erika was saying. "You've had a month!"

"It took me a week and a half to slowly rearrange the guard schedule so that no one would get suspicious! These things have to be done gradually!"

"Fine. So what have you been doing for the last two and a half weeks then?" At this interrogation, Kishimoto faltered slightly.

"I can't seem to get him alone, even without the guards. His attendants hang around him like gnats, and it seems he always has at least one of those girls with him." At this, Erika made an annoyed growl.

"So kill them, too. They're just harlots anyway, of no real use to anyone. And it will assure you have no witnesses."

"I-I can't do that. They have nothing to do with this. I can't have innocent blood on my hands."

"Innocent?" Erika almost shrieked; she had to pause for a second to bring her volume back under control. "Those…_girls_ are the reason I have a separate bedchamber on the _opposite_ end of the castle from the man who is supposed to be my husband! I'm a laughing stock!"

"I know, but it's not their fault. Urashima-dono is to blame, not them. As soon as I see an opening, I'll carry out the plan, and then we can be together." Erika's face softened, and Sakura's and Ino's eyes went wide.

"I know, I trust you," Erika said. "And I admire your integrity, I truly do. It's why I fell in love with you." She kissed him passionately before continuing. "I have an idea," she stated in a suddenly firm voice. "One that won't require you to sully your hands at all, and it won't matter if there are witnesses."

"What's that?" Kishimoto asked, clearly intrigued. Ino and Sakura continued eavesdropping from their hiding place with rapt interest.

"Why don't I contract a group of ninja to do the job for us?" Erika proposed. Kishimoto gasped.

"Ninja?"

"Of course. It's what they do, after all. And there will be no danger of anyone tracing it back to you, since you won't have done it."

"I don't know," Kishimoto was hesitating. "It's usually my job to keep ninja _out_ of the castle. What would it look like if they just got in?"

"My darling, the mark of a good ninja is that you don't even know they're there. Even if you were expecting them to come, you wouldn't know when, and Hideyoshi will be dead before you even knew anything had happened."

Kishimoto seemed to hesitate again, and finally gulped and nodded. Erika kissed him again before sweeping from the room, presumably to contact some ninja from another village. Ino immediately gave the signal for Sakura to spring into action. The pink-haired kunoichi activated her Meimei no Jutsu, and dashed over and apprehended Kishimoto. Ino swept over and shut the door, placing a seal on it so no one could get in. She then send word to Hinata that she and Sakura were occupied and to extend her watch before returning to the back of the room.

Sakura deactivated her genjutsu and removed her hand from her samurai captive's mouth. The man was visibly shaken.

"Wh-who are you?"

"I don't think that's any concern of yours at the moment," Ino said harshly. "Care to explain that conversation you just had?" Kishimoto looked back and forth between them rapidly for a few seconds, and then, knowing he was caught, lowered his head and began to talk.

"Erika and I have been lovers for the past year," he explained. "Her husband, the Daimyo, is truly a horrible man. He mistreats her and everyone else who lives in this castle. Moreover, he is abusive as a Daimyo because of the abnormally large amount of samurai under his command, as well as the ninja village of Konohagakure. He thinks he can do whatever he wants." Ino and Sakura blanched at the name of their home and in learning they were being exploited. They would have to ask Tsunade later if she knew about it.

"So the two of you were plotting to kill him, then," Ino supplied. Kishimoto nodded.

"It was Erika's idea," he said. "She said that the mistreatment of the people would end, and the two of us could be together because the people would naturally flock to me as the new Daimyo, since Urashima-dono has no heir."

"Real noble of you, isn't it?" Ino pressed. "The people are free for the time being and you just _happen_ to become Daimyo and get your mistress all in one go."

"That's not the way…"

"Whatever," Ino cut him off. "Sakura, go catch up to that woman and stop her before she can contact the ninjas."  
"Hai." Sakura prepared to vanish.

"NO!" Kishimoto yelled, diving at Sakura and falling face first onto the floor. "No, leave her out of this! Punish me, but leave her alone!"

"Look, she was the one who came up with this whole idea, and she happens to be the one sending for ninja. Therefore, she needs to be…"

"It wasn't supposed to happen like that! I was supposed to get caught and executed!" That froze the two young kunoichi right in their tracks.

"Nani?" Asked Sakura, still in the middle of a seal.

"They were supposed to catch me, but they never came!"

"What are you…" Ino started to ask, but then realization lit up her face. "You! You were the one who sent the anonymous tip! You were the one who sent for ninja from the village to protect him!"

"You mean, you two are leaf nin?" Kishimoto asked somewhat incredulously.

"Of course we are," Ino answered impatiently. "But why would you do that? Weren't you one of the ones plotting to kill him?"

"Yes, I was. But I found that no matter how much I disliked him, I could not betray my master. It goes against everything my father taught me. So I would attempt to assassinate him, and be caught and killed by ninja in the process. Erika would be in no way involved."

"She'd be pretty upset that her lover was killed though, wouldn't you think?" Sakura asked him. He merely hung his head. "Hmph. I bet you never even thought about that!"

"No, I did!" Kishimoto insisted. "But there was nothing that could be done. Erika would know I loved her, because I died trying to make a better life for her. And I would be properly punished for betraying my master." He hung his head low again, and the girls were momentarily at a loss for what to say.

"Well that's not going to work now," Ino finally pointed out. "If she gets ninja to do it, then you wouldn't be able to stop them."

"I know that."

"Then why did you agree to it?" Sakura asked.

A pause, and then, "I couldn't refuse her." Ino and Sakura both raised an eyebrow. "I couldn't let her know that I was unable to go through with the plan. So I would fight the ninja as was my duty, and be killed that way. Urashima-dono will die, and at least she will be free of him. That provides me comfort."

"Hold on a minute," Ino stopped him. "You think we're going to let that happen?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"We were hired to make sure that your Daimyo doesn't get assassinated," Ino stated plainly. "It doesn't matter if it was all a sham so you could kill yourself, that's still our mission. Sakura!"

"Hai!" The pink-haired kunoichi was gone in a puff of smoke before Kishimoto could do anything.

"Don't hurt Erika!" the young Samurai pleaded. He tried to get up, but Ino pushed him back down again.

"I wouldn't worry about that," she said with a smile. "If I know Sakura, she won't hurt her at all. She'd probably want to help you if we hadn't been assigned to do otherwise. But we can't let her contact any ninja. That would be…" she trailed off of for a second as a wide grin spread across her face at the thought of her next words, "too troublesome."

"You won't tell her that I couldn't do it, will you?" he pleaded some more. It was almost unnerving, seeing a samurai in such a state. "Tell her you turned me over to Urashima-dono. I assume that's what you were going to do anyway. Then I can be executed and be done with it." Ino frowned.

"I'm not going to lie to her," she said.

"Please!" he begged. "It's my final request before I meet my judgement!" Ino's frown deepened.

"I mean I'm not going to say I turned you in when I didn't," she said matter-of-factly. "Nor do I intend to."

Now it was the samurai's turn to frown. "N-nani?"

"I've been around Urashima-dono long enough to know that what you're saying about him is true. Frankly, I think he's a pig and would deserve whatever he got. The only reason he hasn't made a move on any of us is because he knows we wouldn't protect him anymore if he did." Ino's face twisted in revulsion as she spoke. "Our mission is to prevent his assassination. However, I wouldn't have any problems with helping you remove him from power. Just don't tell my superiors about it."

Kishimoto's face suddenly lit up. "Y-you would do that?"

Ino finally smiled again. "Sure. And I know my teammates would back me up. Sakura especially. She loves sappy romance stuff like this. Besides, the fire country could use some better leadership, and I think you'd do a good job." Ino knew she was stepping way beyond her boundaries, but if she could orchestrate the whole thing so it looked like a coup from the inside, neither she nor Kishimoto would receive any blame for it. The trouble was how to do that. She didn't have time to think on it though, as Jo's voice was suddenly yelling in her ear.

"Ino! Trouble! Hinata says there are three unidentified ninja approaching the castle with murderous intent!"

"What!?" She shrieked.

"What is it?" asked Kishimoto.

"Those ninjas your girlfriend hired…they're already here! How is that possible?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Did she have it planned in advance and not tell me?"

"You'd better sort that out later," she said forcefully. "I need to get to Urashima-dono right now." She performed a few seals and departed in the same fashion as Sakura, though under a bit more duress.

----------

"Kuso!" Sakura cursed as she ran. When she had caught up with Erika, she had found the young woman at a window. She immediately confronted the Daimyo's wife and told her she knew everything. Erika had replied that it was too late, and she had already signaled for the ninja that were waiting on the edge of the forest. They had come from her come country, Mori no Kuni, only two days ago with orders to assassinate her husband and bring her back home. The stories of Urashima-dono had reached even there, and her people were not happy. The three ninja sent had come to meet up with her first, and she had asked them to wait until she could get Kishimoto-san's approval. They had agreed, and had been waiting ever since. Now they were going to make their strike.

"Jo!" She yelled as she ran. "Tell the others!"

"They already know," her slug companion responded. "Hinata-san spotted them with her Byakkugan." Well, that was one less thing to worry about, at least.

"_This mission just got a lot harder,"_ she thought to herself.

----------

Ino arrived in the overly large bedchamber to find that Hinata had positioned their charge in the back corner. It was the easiest place to defend, as it was small, only open to one direction, and away from windows or doors.

"Sakura is on her way," Jo informed her. It sounded like it was an afterthought to the slug, which annoyed the blonde kunoichi a great deal, but she said nothing; she merely nodded her comprehension.

"How close are they, Hinata?" she asked.

"They could be here any minute. I lost track of one – he's coming in through the castle. The other two are outside, coming up the walls."

"Great. Come on, Forehead Girl, hurry up!"

"Shut up, Ino-pig!" came a voice from the entrance. Ino could see no one.

"Sakura?" she questioned the darkness.

"Hai. I used Meimei no Jutsu so nobody infiltrating the castle could follow me here."

"Good idea," Ino smiled. "Keep it up. If they think we only have two, it'll increase our chances."

"Ino-san!" Hinata whispered loudly. "They're here!"

"Okay, go," the leader replied, making a jerking movement backward with her head. The dark-haired girl acknowledged the direction and leapt back, hiding in the corner on the ceiling directly above their charge. Then Ino saw three black-clad figures creep into the room: one came through the window, one through the door to the corridor, and one through an opening to the roof that she could not see. They crawled along the walls for a few seconds and then dropped, all facing Ino. They all wore masks and hoods, each having a hitai-ate with a tree on it over their foreheads. They all appeared to have masculine builds. They also each had a weapon or tool on their backs, but with the dim lighting and the dark colors, she couldn't make out what they were. A bad thing.

"So, he has protection," on of them said. "He has protection."

"Not much," said another. "Just one kunoichi."

"Don't be an idiot," the first one spoke again. "Are you a shinobi? For a protection mission like this, there will be others hidden in the shadows. Be on your guard."

"Why have you come to assassinate the Daimyo of Hokuni?" Ino asked in a defiant voice. She was feeling brave and competent for the most part, but a part of her was really wishing that Shikamaru and Chouji and Asuma-sensei were with her.

"Some people back home aren't happy with his diplomatic policies," the one that hadn't spoken yet answered. "Of course, if he willingly removes himself from power, we don't _have_ to kill him." It was obvious the man was smirking. "But his wife comes along with us regardless."

"Y-you're from Mori no Kuni?" Urashima-dono asked.

"Be quiet!" Ino hissed from the corner of her mouth. Secretly, she was gathering the chakura for her strength-enhancing jutsu. She would have to do it without the seals, but hopefully it would be enough.

"That's right," the third one spoke.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the first one broke in. "Raku."

"Shaku."

"Bareru."

Each one took a small, mocking bow as he said his name.

"The elite oak triplets from the village hidden in the trees," said Raku. They couldn't be _that_ elite, as Ino had never heard of them before. Still, that didn't mean they weren't at least jounin. This wasn't looking good at all. Then, the wheels that had been turning in her head since she'd left Kishimoto finally produced something. She had a plan, if they would let her use it. But the one thing that was bothering her was something Shikamaru always said. "Never go with 'if.' Always have a backup plan in case 'if' fails. And have a backup for that plan, too." She didn't have a backup, let alone two, so she had to go with 'if.' And this 'if' was a big one.

"Enough games!" Yelled Shaku. "Let's do what we came to do!" The three rushed at Ino, who barely had the time to react by dropping into a defensive stance. Suddenly, just as they were supposed to, Hinata and Sakura sprang into action. Hinata flew off the wall and landed a kick right on Bareru's jaw, sending him reeling across the room. Sakura had managed to sneak up behind Raku during the conversation and snapped his neck when he started to move, decreasing their number of enemies to two. Ino herself found herself in a taijutsu match against Shaku. All she needed was one good hit to send him flying just like his teammate. After a good ten seconds of sparring, she found an opening and landed a mighty punch in his gut, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. All three girls stood with triumphant grins on their faces.

"Was that the best that Kigakure has to offer?" Sakura mocked. She had become visible again.

"Actually, no," came a voice from right in front of them. It was Raku, whom Sakura had supposedly killed at the start of the battle. He was sitting up. "But we'll be more than enough to deal with you."

"What…how…" Sakura stammered.

"My brothers and I all wear special neck guards to prevent people from doing exactly what you tried to do," he said. He then sprung to his feet and flipped back to where his brothers were getting to theirs as well.

"Now that you've completely revealed yourselves, we can fight you seriously," Shaku said. "You didn't think I was _that_ reckless, did you? My brother even warned me!"

Of course! Ino mentally smacked herself. He intentionally acted impetuous and pretended to underestimate them so that _they _would underestimate _him_. How could she be so stupid? She watched as the three of them each pulled the weapons from behind their backs. Bareru had tonfa. Shaku had a bo. Raku had a sword…no, wait. It was a bokken.

"A bokken!?" Ino exclaimed incredulously.

"Don't underestimate the power of a finely crafted wooden weapon. Our weapons are all carved from the strongest red oak in Kigakure. Our families' wooden weapons techniques are older than the village itself," Raku said calmly. "Now unless you were planning on surrendering, prepare to die. Ino felt her teammates drop into defensive stances, and she did as well. Then she spoke.

"Urashima-dono, we've been hired to protect you, and we will do so with our lives. However, in this situation I feel I should inform you that we will probably not win. Once these ninja kill us, they will kill you, too."

"Ino!"

"Ino-san!"

The blonde kunoichi quickly silenced her companions with a look. If this didn't work…

"If you willingly remove yourself from power, they will no longer be obligated to kill you. At this point, that is your best chance for survival."

"Chickening out, eh?" Shaku taunted. Ino ignored him. Hinata and Sakura still looked baffled, but remained silent.

"What are you saying to me, girl?" the cowering daimyo demanded. "Is this the best that the Konoha have to send to my aid?"

"We could have sent older, more experienced ninja if you weren't such a pervert and a pedophile," Ino jabbed with a twist of disgust in her voice.

"Now see here, young woman…!" the daimyo actually rose to his feet, but sat again after a threatening gesture from Bareru.

"I'd listen to your bodyguard," Raku said. His voice held a hint of…amusement? "Even the best ninja knows when a fight is gone. And we promise we won't kill you if you abdicate your power." He gave a sincere bow, and was mimicked by his brothers. On his way up, he winked at Ino.

She had to restrain herself or she would have gasped aloud. Did he…he must have! He'd figured out what she was doing, and was playing along!

Urashima-dono seemed to consider the options he was being presented with.

"Are you _sure_ you can't beat them?" He asked Ino.

"We'll try," she said in what she hoped was an assuring voice. "But our best chance was what you just saw, and that didn't work."

Once again the man in the corner seemed to think hard on his decision, but the moment was interrupted by a commotion from the door.

"Urashima-dono!"

"Kishimoto-san! Don't!" Ino cried, but it was too late. The swordsman had dashed at the three tree ninjas, and with a whip of then end of his staff, Shaku sent a burst of air that pummeled into the young warrior and threw him into the wall. He did not get up.

"Kishimoto-san!" Sakura yelled out.

"Hinata!" Ino ordered.

"Hai!" The demure girl leapt over to the fallen warrior to assess him. The tree ninja did nothing to stop her.

"Fine," came a small voice from behind them.

"Nani?" Ino asked.

"I will abdicate my power. Kishimoto was a loyal servant, and I will not see him die for my sake if I can so easily prevent it. I abdicate my power and my title as of now, for his sake. Girl, if you can save him, I will give my title to him."

Needless to say, this surprised all three of the Konoha girls. Such a noble act was not to be expected from Urashima. It seemed that true loyalty was always repaid after all.

"He's bleeding internally, and he has a big bump on his head, but he should live," Hinata informed them. Ino could see she was performing the healing jutsu Tsunade had taught her.

"Very well then," said Raku casually. "We'll just be taking the mistress and be on our way."

"No!" Ino yelled, surprising everyone in the room – even Sakura, who had been about to do the same.

"Oh, what now?" Bareru demanded impatiently.

"Well, Erika-san is still the mistress of this castle, right?" Ino said, thinking quickly. She cast a furtive glance at Kishimoto, still on the floor. "She should stay here. Urashima-san, surely you would prefer one of the girls from the castle over an arrange political marriage anyway?" She was sweating nervously, and she could feel Raku watching her intently. She glanced at Kishimoto again.

"Yes, and I'm sure Kishimoto-san would allow that, after what you've given him," Sakura added, catching on. Urashima seemed to think this was a good idea, or at least sensed there was no point in arguing, because he said nothing.

"I suppose you're right," Raku said after a few moments of silence. "Erika-san was sent her for political reasons, after all. With a new daimyo here, it will be important to keep up relations."

"What?" Shaku blurted. "Raku, what are you doing?"

"Be quiet, you idiot," Ino heard him mumble to his brother. Ino allowed herself a small grin. Once again this guy had figured out what she was doing and was helping her out. He was very observant, and quick on the uptake. He reminded her of someone…

"He's awake!" Hinata exclaimed. All in the room looked over to where Kishimoto was now in a sitting position. He looked a little dazed, but otherwise all right.

"Er, Kishimoto-san," Urashima said, "there is something I must discuss with you." He walked over to his former servant and helped him to his feet, and the two left the room. This left just the six ninja, and Ino felt she had to say something to the Ki nin who had helped her out so much. She needed to thank him or something. She made to go over to him, but found he was coming to her instead.

"I like your style," he said bluntly. His eyes gave away his grin.

"Nani?"

"It was obvious what you were doing, even if my two idiot brothers couldn't see it. You knew as well as I did that Urashima was a poor daimyo, but you couldn't go against your mission. So you had him remove himself, avoided a fight, and accomplished your mission all at once. And – if I'm not mistaken – helped out a pair of lovers as well, am I right?"

Ino was flabbergasted. "How did you know all that?"

"I was trained to be especially observant of people's actions. When the context of a situation is factored in, it's often an easy matter to discern a person's true motives. And you were watching that samurai when you were insisting on Erika-san staying here. I think even Bareru caught on to that. Of course Shaku wouldn't notice anything, the dense brute." He chuckled. Ino looked over to where the two aforementioned shinobi were holding a conversation with her own teammates. Shaku seemed to be putting some moves on Hinata, who in turn seemed none to comfortable about it. She chuckled as well.

"No, he doesn't seem like the observant type." Then she thought of something. "When he came in and noticed me, was he just pretending not to know there were others here to put us off-guard, or was he serious?"

"You know, I really don't know," said Raku, putting a finger to his chin. "It wouldn't shock me at all if he was serious, since that's exactly the kind of thing he would overlook, but he can surprise even me with his tactics every once in a while."

"Well, thank you for all of your help," Ino said. "You certainly didn't have to do anything to help me at all, and I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it," Raku said. "You're a very capable and compassionate woman…Ino-san, was it?" She nodded. "And you seem to me to be a fine shinobi and leader. I hope you'll pardon me for making this comment, but you'll make someone very happy someday." For some reason she couldn't fathom, Ino blushed slightly. "Or maybe you have already," Raku finished in a quiet, chuckling tone.

"Shaku! Bareru! We're finished! It's time to leave and report back to the village!"

"Hai!" They said in unison. They said goodbye to Hinata and Sakura (who didn't seem to mind that they were leaving) as Raku waved to Ino over his shoulder and the three of them were gone.

"That was some plan, Ino!" Sakura congratulated her friend. "I was really lost on what you were doing there for a while! Great work!"

"Hai," Hinata agreed. "I think even Shikamaru-san would be proud of you for that plan, Ino-san."

Ino blushed some more as she laughed and scratched the back of her head in a very Naruto-like gesture.

"Thanks," she managed. "Let's go see how our new happy couple is doing, ne?" And they left the room to seek out the new daimyo of Hokuni.

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"Sayonara, Ino-san, Sakura-san, Hinata-san!" Kishimoto-dono waved from the front gate of his castle. He had his arm around Erika-san, who was also waving and smiling as she leaned into his shoulder. "Thank you for everything that you've done for us!"

The three of them waved back, and then turned and headed into the forest to make the day and a half journey home. It had all turned out well. Erika's marriage to Urashima had been annulled and she was going to remarry Kishimoto-dono. Urashima had been given a large house and some land on the edge of Hokuni as a reward/compensation for stepping down willingly. He'd managed to convince one of the young girls from the castle to come with him and marry him, though none of the Konoha girls could figure out how. And, when the situation had called for it, each of them had been able to use their new techniques. Not to the full potential, but it was a start.

The trip home was uneventful. Truthfully, they just wanted to get back and sleep in their own beds again. They were all hoping that the boys would be back, but knew it was unlikely. Kiba and Shino had most likely finished the mission they'd been assigned, but were probably out on another one by now. And the other team had probably just had time to settle in up in Koori no Kuni. Still, the site of the massive gates of Konohagakure were a welcome sight indeed to the three kunoichi when they finally arrived.

When they entered the village, they ran right into Chouji, who was in the middle of giving a lecture to some first-year academy students on the importance of guard duty.

"Chouji!" Ino exclaimed excitedly. Hinata and Sakura appeared pleased to see a friendly face as well.

"Hey, you're back!" Chouji exclaimed almost as enthusiastically – it was hard to be as enthusiastic as Ino. "How was your mission?"

"Oh, Kami, don't ask," Ino said in an exasperated tone. "Has anyone else come back yet?" She asked hopefully.

"Well, Shikamaru's group isn't back, and we don't know when they will be. But Kiba and Shino came back about a week ago, and Kiba was looking pretty bad."

"NANI?" Hinata yelled. She was no longer the weary, glad-to-be-home person she had been a moment ago. She was now fully alert and her breathing was even accelerated.

"Yeah," said Chouji dejectedly. "He was hurt really bad. I haven't seen anything like it since…well, since we went after Sasuke. Shino carried him back just like that Kankuro guy did that time. He was really pale and had a big hole in his stomach. Hokage-sama has been working on him whenever she gets a chance since. Shizune-sama is with him the rest of the time."

"I need to go!" Hinata announced, and ran off as fast as she could toward the hospital. No one tried to stop her.

"So…is Tsunade-sama in her office now?" Ino asked. "Sakura and I need to give her our report, and tell her there's a new daimyo."

"Nani? A new daimyo?"

"It's a long story, Chouji-kun," Sakura said. "We'll explain later."

"Well, okay. Yeah, she should be in her office now."

"Arigatou, Chouji," Ino said. "We'll catch up tomorrow after your class gets out."

"Hai."

So Ino and Sakura delivered their report, leaving out a few details. Tsunade seemed amused and somewhat pleased when she heard of the political change, and she was glad they left on good terms with the tree ninja. Konoha had been at peace with Kigakure for fifty years, and it would have been a shame to destroy that.

After that, they were given some time off, as well as a pay bonus for "beyond satisfactory performance in a mission." Or something like that. So they had two weeks to rest and enjoy being home, and then they started getting guard duty. Well, Sakura and Ino, anyway. Hinata refused to leave the hospital until Kiba was in at least stable condition, and she was helping Shizune-sama care for him while learning some new medical techniques at the same time.

Anyway, Sakura and Ino had been added to the guard detail after a few of the guards had been promoted to jounin and sent on more important missions. It was a trifle boring, but they welcomed such a mission after their previous one. Then one day a few weeks into it, they received a shock. Two familiar figures were walking down the path to the gate. The two girls were on the ground rather than the wall, so the two figures were fairly close to them when they noticed.

"Is that…?" Ino asked. She wanted to run up and find out, but that would be abandoning her post.

"I think it is!" Sakura proclaimed excitedly.

Sure enough, Shikamaru walked up to them a minute later, supporting a very tired and fairly battered Naruto.

"Oi!" the lazy ninja shouted when he was close enough.

"Shikamaru!" Ino shouted.

"Naruto!" echoed Sakura. Forgetting all regulations, the two girls ran up to their friends, wondering if they should attempt a hug. One look at how much Naruto was depending on Shikamaru for his current vertical status told them that would have to wait for later.

"Oi, Sakura-chan," the blonde ninja greeted weekly. "G-gomen." Then he passed out, leaving a very confused Sakura wondering what he was apologizing for.

"Where are the others?" Ino asked Shikamaru.

"Back in Yukigakure, finalizing a treaty the snow nin are drawing up. Well, they're probably finished and on their way back by now."

"But why are you two back early?" Sakura pressed. "And what happened to Naruto? You obviously didn't fight the snow nin if the others were working on a treaty with them."

The answer they received was one that neither girl was expecting, and could never have been prepared for.

"We ran into Sasuke."

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Ooodelaly, but that was a long chapter. Longer than I originally intended to be sure. Can you imagine if it was combined with the previous chapter like I'd planned in the first place? Yeesh.

Anyway, fret not, fans of the tree nin, for I like them and just might bring them back. I was originally going to have them fight the girls, but the outline for this chapter got changed a lot. Erika was originally going to be the villain and Urashima the good guy. Kishimoto was still the loyal servant/lover. In effect, his role didn't change at all. His ending did, though.

I was really looking forward to that end line, though. Like I said, that was one of the things I had planned from the start. Seriously. That whole scene and that line – verbatim - have been in my head since before I even started writing this.

Note: The honorific "-dono" has both pre-modern and modern connotations. Since Naruto seems to be a mix of both, I didn't know whether to use it or "-sama" when referring to the feudal lord. In the end, as you are well aware, I went with "-dono." If get serious complaints about it and someone can come up with a good reason why I should change it, I will.

And lastly, I mentioned it above and I will mention it again:

The way things are set up in the castle are obviously not in line with historical Japan. Since this is common in Naruto, that was intentional. I would appreciate it if I didn't get a bunch of reviews and emails telling me I got the samurai/daimyo system all wrong. Since it has now been said twice, if you see anyone commenting on it in a review, feel free to call them an idiot.

Mori no Kuni – Forest Country

Kigakure – Village hidden in the trees

Koori no Kuni – Ice Country

Hokuni – Fire Country

As always, if there's any I forgot, let me know and I'll add them.


	5. Chapter 4: Yukigakure

Now we get to see the boys' mission. (And Tenten, of course). This is where things really start to get interesting, and the plot really starts to take off. Also, as has been pointed out to me, Naruto's country is called "Hi no Kuni," not "Hokuni." I knew that, too – or at least I should have, seeing as I'm studying the language and all. I need to pay more attention when I'm writing stuff at two in the morning. (That's when I do most of my writing, as for some reason I feel more creative in the wee hours of the morning).

I really don't have much else to say, except that one of my favorite characters is introduced in this chapter. Try and see if you can figure out who. (Hint: It's pretty obvious).

Chapter Four – Yukigakure

"What was all that about?" Naruto asked as they left the Hokage's tower. "They seemed really upset when we told them where we were going."

Shikamaru spared his companion an annoyed glance. "They were worried about us, fool," he said.

"Why, though?" Naruto pressed. "It's not like we were being sent off to kill Orochimaru or something. And why did Ino get all angry-sounding all of a sudden?"

Shikamaru merely glared at the blonde ninja from the corners of his eyes and said nothing. _"Baka."_

When it finally became clear that he wasn't going to get a response, Naruto moved on to another topic. "We should go get our equipment ready, ne? Sunset isn't too long from now."

Shikamaru looked up at the sky. "Aa." Then he looked back at Naruto. "I'll see you at the gate in about thirty minutes. Don't forget anything."

"Right!" and Naruto was off.

"_Why is he always in such a hurry?"_ Shikamaru wondered. He turned to look back to look at the Hokage's tower, and recalled the state-of-affairs briefing he'd attended the other day. _"Ino, if she's sending you where I think she's sending you, you have to be careful too."_

Tenten never did like standing around. It wasn't that she hungered for action or that she was the type of person who needed to keep busy for any particular reason, she just got bored. So as she and her two old teammates were waiting for the other two members of their mission, she gave into curiosity and asked the question that had been on her mind since Gai-sensei had told them they'd be going on a high-profile mission.

"Why do you think we were chosen for this mission?"

Neji, not surprisingly, was the one who answered her.

"It's quite simple. You were chosen because infiltration is always easier for kunoichi, and because you are accustomed to working with the two of us." He indicated Lee and himself. "Lee was chosen because his chakura patterns do not immediately reveal that he is a shinobi, even to somebody examining him for that purpose. He will appear to anyone who sees him as merely an abnormally strong martial artist. I was chosen because my Byakugan is ideal for information gathering and missions such as this. Nara was added because of his superb methods of strategy and deduction. And, in a pinch, each of us is capable of looking after ourselves."

"What about Naruto-kun?" Lee asked.

Neji smiled slightly. "He was sent so none of us will have to worry about looking after ourselves."

"_They're all here…except Naruto,"_ observed Shikamaru as he approached the group. _"Now we'll have to sit and wait for him. How bothersome."_

"Konbanwa, Nara-kun!" Lee greeted affably with a wave.

"Where is Uzumaki?" Neji asked as he stepped up to them.

"How should I know?" Shikamaru asked gruffly. "The last I saw of him was half an hour ago."

"Naruto-kun will be here, even if he is a little late," Lee stated confidently. "Remember who his sensei was, after all." Shikamaru noticed that Neji emitted a small chuckle and was smirking slightly.

"So you're in command of this mission, right Nara-kun?" Tenten asked, obviously trying to make conversation; Tsunade had appointed him team leader in front of all of them.

"Aa," he answered simply. "And just call me Shikamaru. I don't like all that formal surname crap." Besides, if they were going to be working on a mission together for a long period of time, they should trust each other enough to feel comfortable using given names. But it would be too troublesome to explain all that.

"Um, okay," Tenten replied.

"Oi! Shikamaru!" The young Nara's eye twitched slightly upon hearing the voice that was shouting his name. Turning around, he answered in his usual annoyed tone, volume slightly raised.

"Naruto! You're late."

"Gomen, gomen!" Naruto apologized as he ran up to the group and caught his breath. "I ran into Kakashi-sensei, and he knew where we were going. He gave me advice on what to pack, and I had to go back because he mentioned some things I forgot."

"Does _every_body know where we're going?" Shikamaru asked irritably. "I thought this was supposed to be a secret."

"Gai-sensei probably told him when he went to get you two," Lee speculated.

"Most likely," Neji said. "Shall we leave, then?" Shikamaru nodded in response. "What is our formation?"

Tenten looked surprised about something, but Shikamaru didn't really care what. He got out the paper he'd been drawing on while packing.

"I'm not as familiar with the abilities of your team as I'd like to be," he said to the Hyuuga, "but this should work." He showed them the paper. "We'll be moving as a group until we leave Hi no Kuni, but when we cross the border we'll proceed in individual succession, avoiding a straight line whenever possible. Tenten, you'll be forward scout. From what I've seen of you in various chuunin exams you have quick reflexes, and your knowledge of traps and weapons will be a good asset. Hopefully we won't run into anything like that until we near the Snow Village, but keep watch just the same. Naturally, I'll come second as team leader. Naruto, you're right in the middle as usual. You know what your job is." The blonde grinned widely and gave a thumbs-up. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Lee, you'll be next. You've got some good power and a lot of speed, so you'll be quick to help if anything happens up front, and we don't have to displace anyone else. Neji, you're naturally the rear scout; your Byakugan is invaluable. Any questions?" Everyone shook their heads, and he called for a weapons inspection. Three minutes later, they were leaping through the trees away from the village. No one knew how long it would be before they returned.

Tenten flew through the forest with practiced ease, vaguely aware of her teammates in her peripheral vision. She was keeping a sharp lookout for anything that might cause her team trouble. There really wasn't much to be worried about so close to the village, but Tenten was of the mindset that one could never be too careful.

All the while she couldn't stop thinking about the way Neji had behaved at the gates before they left. In every mission she'd ever been on with her old team, Neji had always been the leader. And he'd led every other mission he'd been on since becoming a chuunin. He didn't like taking orders. And yet there he was, not only accepting orders from a shinobi a year younger than himself, but _asking_ for them. This told Tenten only one thing: Nara Shikamaru was a leader to be respected. For Neji to go along with something somebody else said so easily, he would have to trust that person implicitly. Trust and respect were hard won from Hyuuga Neji.

Signaling back to Shikamaru that there was a clearing coming up and receiving back instructions to move around it, she began to reflect on the other member of her team that she was not completely familiar with: Uzumaki Naruto.

She knew of him, of course. Everybody knew of the dead-last noisy ninja who somehow developed into one of the most powerful and skilled shinobi of his generation, becoming a favorite of both the Hokage and the legendary Gama-sennin in the process. Even though she hadn't really had much interaction with him before, ever since he defeated Neji in their first chuunin exam, he had held her utmost respect. From what she had heard from her teammates, and Hyuuga Hinata as well, Naruto was one of the most loyal, warm-hearted people she could ever have the privilege of meeting. Neji, Lee and Hinata all respected him a great deal, and she didn't need the Byakugan to see that each of them had grown in some way from their encounters with the overly cheerful ninja.

Neji was right then, that this was a team excellently suited to carry out the mission they had been assigned. She only hoped it wouldn't be as difficult as the Hokage had made it sound.

A day and a half into the mission, they crossed the border of the fire country and began moving in the more staggered formation that Shikamaru had designed. Naruto really had no idea how far away the ice country was, but the old bag had told them it would take at least a week to get there. The journey was going well enough. It was all people he got along with, after all – even Tenten, whom he'd never really spoken to before, turned out to be very friendly. It was a welcome change from being sent on a mission with older shinobi who remembered the Kyuubi's attack and still believed him to be the actual embodiment of the great demon.

He'd asked Neji what the jounin test was all about, since the older boy tended to know that sort of thing, and the answer he received was unexpected.

"You'll know when it is time for you to know."

He wasn't really sure what that was supposed to mean. Did Neji know and wasn't telling him? Or was that just some rule about the test that Neji knew and he didn't because no one was around to raise him and tell him such things? And what kind of rule was it, anyway? Who decided it was time for him to know? The old hag? Kakashi-sensei? Those stupid village elders?

He knew Shikamaru didn't know, so it was pointless to ask him, and the odds of Fuzzy Eyebrows knowing something like that were pretty low. He'd have to ask Tenten when they stopped to rest.

So lost in his thoughts was he that he almost didn't notice Shikamaru was giving the signal to stop. Fighting the urge to call out and ask what the problem was, he ducked out of sight under a large limb on the tree he'd landed on and watched his leader for further instructions. After a few seconds, he saw another signal saying that Neji needed to come up to the front. He relayed the signal back to Lee and went back to waiting. What was going on? If Shikamaru needed to talk to Neji, there must be something up ahead that he was worried about and wanted Neji to look at with his Byakugan.

A few seconds more and the young Hyuuga went flying past him, his presence only detectable because Naruto knew to look for it. He spoke with Shikamaru for a bit, and then the signal was given for the team to gather up. Naruto leapt from his hiding place to join them, making sure to conceal his movements just in case.

"What is it, Shikamaru?" Lee asked as he jumped onto the branch with the rest of them.

"This is pretty much the end of the trees," their leader informed them. "The forest continues on for a little while, but the trees get much smaller and harder to leap through. Soon they won't be big enough to hide in or even support our weight. Also, there's a team of ninja up ahead. Neji says it looks like a genin team with its jounin sensei, but couldn't see what village they were from. This could mean several things, one of them being that it's someone in disguise waiting to ambush us. Whatever the case, we're going to go around them. Neji will monitor them and if they react to our movement then we know they're on to us. We'll go a little farther through the trees and then we're on the ground. Any questions?" There were none. "All right then. Let's go. Carefully."

They made their way along, carefully avoiding the other ninja team. Neji informed them that the one who appeared to be a jounin became aware of their presence but did nothing, signifying that he knew they were not a threat. They passed without incident.

That had been four days ago, and not a thing had happened since to disrupt their journey. Naruto was bored out of his mind.

"Man, can't something _happen?_ He lamented one morning when they'd stopped to rest.

Shikamaru looked at him with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Baka. This is good. If nothing happens, then we'll be there by tomorrow at the pace we're going. Plus, it indicates that no one in the Snow Village is aware of our presence."

"Well yeah, but I'm bored," Naruto complained.

"You won't be when we arrive," Neji said calmly from where he was leaning up against a large rock. His arms were crossed and his eyes remained closed.

"Well why don't we just go right now instead of sitting around?" Naruto said.

"Because we've been traveling all night and we're tired. Not everyone has an infinite amount of stamina like you," Shikamaru said.

"But we're going to have to approach the village in darkness anyway, right?" Naruto reasoned. "If we get there tomorrow, we'll have to wait a whole extra day, but if we go now, we can get there tonight."

"I've thought of that," Shikamaru said. "But if we do that, we'll be near-exhausted upon reaching the village, and ill-fit to defend ourselves should anything happen."

"That's true," Neji agreed, opening his eyes. "However, we risk camping dangerously close to their village before we make our approach at nightfall."

"That's also true," Shikamaru nodded. "But I've weighed the options and the possible consequences, and this is the safest course of action, and the one that best facilitates our mission."

"All right," Naruto relented reluctantly. "I just wish something would _happen_."

That evening, they set out again. Since they were within a day's travel of their destination, they had to be extremely cautious that they weren't discovered by enemy ninja on patrol. Tenten had initially worried that Naruto's excitement would give them away, but he was apparently a professional ninja after all, and did nothing to endanger the mission.

As the high spires of the village came into view, Shikamaru called them all to a halt. They were in the trees again, as the Hidden Snow Village was surrounded by an alpine forest of sorts, so moving was easier. However, there was a clearing about fifty meters wide that served as a moat between the forest and the village itself that would be incredibly dangerous to cross, according to Neji. Shikamaru went ahead to scout it out himself so he could devise a strategy, instructing Neji to keep watch on him with the Byakugan, and for everyone else to be on alert for themselves and Neji.

"How long until you think he comes back?" Lee whispered to Naruto.

"It won't be long," the blonde answered. "Shikamaru uses shadows really well, so he won't be seen. He already knows what it looks like because Neji told him, but that's not enough to make a strategy."

"How many times have you and Shikamaru worked together?" Tenten asked.

"Enough," Naruto answered with a grin.

"You and he each lost a trusted partner in Uchiha and Akimichi," Neji observed, his eyes still staring forward. "You've been trying to become that for each other."

"Well, it might be something like that," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. He seemed uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"What was it you wanted to ask me about the other day, Naruto-kun?" Tenten asked, remembering Naruto mentioning something early in the mission.

"Huh? Oh, I was just wondering what you knew about the Jounin exam," the blonde said. "I know we're not supposed to know what it is, but how much are we allowed to know? I never had any parents or anyone to tell me anything, so I have no idea."

Tenten considered this for a moment. Her first instinct was to start off by offering her sympathies for having no parents, but she figured he was tired of people talking about that. But what _did_ she know about the jounin exams?

"Well, let's see," she started. "I know it's a secret process that only jounin level ninja know about, and that once you pass it you're not allowed to talk about it. You'd think that people who've failed it would know, but I've never heard of anyone who failed."

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Naruto asked cheerily. "That must mean it's easy to pass."

"I don't think so," Tenten shook her head. "Jounin are the elite. If it was that easy, they wouldn't be as good as they are."

Naruto was about to respond when Lee gulped audibly.

"Maybe…everyone who has failed it has died," he said. The grin dropped off Naruto's face, but was back in a few seconds.

"Heh. Even if that's true, it doesn't scare me. I'll take it and pass it no problem!" He punched his fist to his chest for emphasis.

"_Except you still don't know what it is,"_ Tenten thought, and she sweatdropped.

"That's enough, he's coming back," Neji interrupted. He deactivated his Byakugan and a few moments later, Shikamaru reappeared. When he did, it looked like he was coming out of the tree trunk onto the limb next to them.

"The clearing is covered with snow, and there's no way to determine how deep it is," he told them. "It's obviously done that way on purpose. We could approach on top, but that would give us away as shinobi and eliminates the possibility of using disguises."

"What do we do, then?" Lee asked.

"We're going to wait until dark like we originally planned," Shikamaru went on. "After that, we're going to split up and sneak into the village from different locations. It won't be synchronized; enter whenever you get an opportunity. From here on out, we'll treat this as an individual mission, as it will be too dangerous to try to coordinate our movements with each other once inside the village. Infiltrate and gather information as best you see fit, and remember that our primary objective is to determine their relationships or potential relationships with the Leaf and Sound villages."

He paused to make sure everyone understood so far, and then continued. "As I said, this will be treated as an individual mission. However, if by chance you are captured, that story will not hold up, so you are to say only that you are a scout for your team and that they are awaiting your report to enter the village. Don't give them this information right away, but make sure you tell them eventually. You are not to hold out and tell them nothing. Understood?" They all nodded again. "Good. This will throw them off our trail long enough to exit the village and work out a way to rescue the one who was captured and escape before they catch all of us by surprise. Also, it's slightly less incriminating against the Leaf Village. We'll meet back in this exact spot after ten days, and determine our next move."

"Roger," said Lee, giving a salute. "What should we do until nightfall?"

"Unless anyone has anything else they want to say, we'll split up now. If we're together in a big group, they stand a better chance of discovering us," Shikamaru answered. No one said anything, so he gave the signal to move out.

"See you in ten days!" Naruto declared, and with a puff of smoke he was gone.

"Right. If anyone encounters each other in the village, we don't know each other," Shikamaru said, and he vanished into the shadows.

"Good luck, Tenten! Neji!" Lee waved goodbye, and all they saw was a green streak as he leapt away.

"Take care of yourself," Neji said to her as he prepared to leave as well.

"You too."

The Hyuuga vanished in much the same manner Naruto had, and then Tenten vanished herself.

Lee watched the village wall closely as the twilight began to fade. It wasn't as high as the wall in Konohagakure, but would surely be coated with ice, making it much more difficult to scale. Lee grinned. That would be no problem for him.

He had found a spot that was equidistant from two guard posts, and they only patrolled it once every ten minutes or so. It was a flagrant lack of security, so he was on guard for a trap, but it seemed to be the best opening.

He had changed into "civilian attire," since he was unable to perform a proper _bunshin no jutsu_, and concealed his "Azure Beast" bodysuit with the rest of his ninja equipment in one of the many pockets that a real civilian jacket wouldn't have. He wore long pants, snow boots, a sweater and a heavy jacket, all with secret compartments to conceal weapons and other things in. In short, he looked exactly like one would expect a villager from a snow-covered village to look.

As the last remnants of light finally faded from the horizon, Lee readied himself for his approach. He would wait until the guard made his patrol, and as soon as he began the return to his post, Lee would dash toward the wall. His disguise also had the benefit of concealing him, as it was mostly black, midnight blue, and other dark colors.

"I have learned well, Gai-sensei," he whispered softly. "The skills you made me learn will make it easy to enter this village undetected."

The guard made his turn, and a few seconds later, Lee dashed out from the cover of the trees. He skirted across the surface of the snow with ease, as his chakura control was just proficient enough to keep him from falling through the surface. He was careful to leave no footprints.

Halfway to the wall, he reached behind his back into one of his jacket's secret pockets and pulled out his climbing claws. In the days long passed before chakura control had become so refined, shinobi used small rings worn around the hand with curved claws on the palm to climb walls. Since he was unable to utilize his chakura like most modern shinobi, Lee had mastered the use of all such ancient tools. In this case, it would actually work to his advantage, since any ice on the walls would pose no problems for his iron claws, whereas adhering with chakura would be quite difficult. He possessed similar tools for his feet, but there would be no time to attach them and his upper body strength was more than sufficient.

Upon reaching the wall, he immediately sank his claws in and began climbing. Upon reaching the top, he waited and listened to make sure no one was present, and then vaulted himself over, landing nimbly and silently on the ground inside the village. Infiltration complete.

Naruto looked around upon landing inside the village walls. The first thing to do was change his disguise. Right now he appeared to be a tall, lanky man garbed all in black. He'd given his disguise a hitae-ate with a music note on it so as to incriminate Orochimaru's village if anyone had seen him.

He found a back alley where it would be easy for a shinobi to hide and made his way toward it. All senses on alert, Naruto scanned they alley before changing his disguise. He would change it two more times in the next twenty-four hours before coming to one he would keep for the duration of his time here, and right now it was time to get out of the alley. If anyone had been watching the alley, they would have seen a strange ninja go in, and an elderly beggar emerge five minutes later. It would be suspicious, except for the fact that the alley was open on both ends. Naruto chuckled to himself. To think Iruka-sensei had once told him he'd be horrible at infiltration.

The wheels in Shikamaru's head were whirring madly as he cased the village. He'd been doing it for the past two days, trying to discern the overall mood of the place. For the most part, it seemed very peaceful (as peaceful as a shinobi village ever got), and there was no overhanging sense of hostility such as he'd felt upon visiting other ninja villages such as Amagakure and even Sunagakure. There were no signs that a war was on, or that anyone was planning one. On the whole, the village seemed peacefully alert in a way that reminded him of home before Orochimaru's attack three years previously – only much colder.

He had managed to observe some young students training, but as yet hadn't been able to see any genin teams in operation. He was apprehensive about trying, as someone might discover him and blow his cover. He'd have to save that until the tenth day, when the risk would be much lower.

He was about to move on yet again when an excited cry from across the street caught his attention. It was a young woman's voice, and it came from the ramen stand straight across and to his left. Immediately, Shikamaru's eye twitched.

"This is great!" the young girl was exclaiming. "I haven't had ramen this good in a long time!" The girl had long, blonde pigtails, and was wearing a bright orange coat and snow pants. Shikamaru sweatdropped and slowly started walking over to the ramen stand. Making contact with a teammate was risky, but he had to make sure Naruto was doing his job. It was a calculated risk.

"You must really like it," the chef was saying. "This is the second day in a row you've come back."

"_Figures,_" Shikamaru thought as he approached. "_The first thing he'd look for upon coming into town is a ramen stand."_

"Yeah, it's really good," Naruto said. "My family is made up of traveling merchants and I don't ever get to stay in one place for very long. I'm lucky I found such a great place so early this time." He threw in a grin and a giggle, and Shikamaru had to suppress a gag.

"One bowl of shrimp ramen," he called out his order as he sat down next to his teammate at the stand. The chef turned to make his order and Shikamaru turned to get a better look at the 'girl' sitting next to him. She was happily slurping her ramen, seemingly not a care in the world.

"_At least he had the sense to hide those birthmarks of his,"_ the Nara noted at the visible lack of Naruto's familiar whisker marks. "_And he hasn't worn orange for over a year, so that's not so bad. He'd better not be wasting time, though."_

"Here you go," the chef said, handing him his order.

"Thanks." He broke his chopsticks and began eating, silently observing the conversation that had resumed next to him.

"So your family travels a lot, huh?" the chef asked.

"Uh-huh," Naruto answered. "We get to see a lot of neat stuff. This is only the second ninja village I've been to, though. And the other one was when I was really small, so I don't really remember it. It's neat. A lot more normal than I thought it would be." He smiled at the chef, and even Shikamaru himself was struck with what a cute disguise Naruto had chosen.

"_He's making a friend,"_ Shikamaru realized. _"Even if he did nothing but return here every day for the rest of the mission, he'll probably learn more than any of us."_ Shikamaru hid his smirk by slurping another load of noodles. _"This guy. He's pretty shrewd after all."_

"It's not what you'd expect, is it?" the chef said. "Of course, most of the things you'd associate with a ninja village happen away from public eyes anyway."

"I'm kinda glad," Naruto said. "When my dad told me we were going to a ninja village, I was a little scared. I've heard some creepy stories about ninja."

The chef smiled kindly. "You won't have to worry about that here," he said. Shikamaru's ears perked and he listened more closely. Naruto worked fast. "This village is unlike most other ninja villages you'll find. We have strong bonds here, and work hard to protect the people who are important to us. Even those of us who aren't ninja share in this."

If any statement could have struck home, that was it. Just hearing those words did something to Shikamaru that he couldn't really describe. It was like hearing the old geezer Sandaime talking again or something. He was sure it had an even greater effect on Naruto, but the blonde didn't show it.

"That's nice," the false girl in question said, smiling brightly once again. "My dad would love to hear that. He's always told me that it's important to protect the people close to you."

"Your dad sounds like a decent guy," the chef said.

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded. "I'll have to bring him by tomorrow so you can meet him."

"That'd be nice," the chef said. "Are you finished, then?"

"Well, I am still kinda hungry, but my dad would be angry with me if I spent any more money today."

"Well how about another bowl on the house?" the man offered. Naruto's face lit up, and Shikamaru was certain it wasn't from playing the part of a cute young girl.

"Really? Wow, thanks!"

"Not at all," the man chuckled. "You're a nice young girl, and it's not often I get to have such a great conversation with my customers." He slid another hot bowl towards Naruto, who immediately began wolfing it down. The chef chuckled again. "Besides, you've got a big appetite there. I need to spoil you now so you keep coming back." He grinned and Naruto returned the gesture, finishing off his fourth and final bowl.

"See you tomorrow, then!" the blonde waved cheerfully as she ran off. While she was doing this, her other hand discreetly tossed something into Shikamaru's lap. It caught him off-guard, but he made no show that he noticed it. Instead, he slowly finished off his ramen, thanked and paid the chef, and walked off. When he was down the street a ways, he looked to see what it was that the disguised Naruto had thrown into his lap. It was a tiny, curled up piece of paper.

Arching his eyebrow, he unrolled it. Inside were directions to a location with a time – sundown – written above what looked like a hastily drawn spiral.

"_So he knew who I was_," Shikamaru thought to himself as he memorized the location and then at the slip of paper. _"I'll have to be more careful._"

At sundown, he went to the place Naruto's note had instructed. It was a small house on the outside of town. He knocked, and the door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman who looked very similar to the girl Naruto had posed as earlier in the morning.

"What's the baba's sister's name?" the woman asked casually. It only took a second for Shikamaru to realize what Naruto was talking about, and then he gave the correct answer.

"She doesn't have one."

"Oh, yeah," the woman said, flashing a grin Shikamaru was all-too familiar with. "Come on in." Shikamaru did so, and waited for his companion to shut the door for further instructions. The irony that he was technically Naruto's superior on this mission did not escape him.

"Come in and sit down," the blonde woman instructed, gesturing to a kitchen table. Shikamaru did as he was requested.

"There are seals all around this room," Naruto said as he entered. "No one can hear anything we say or see anything we do unless they come in." As if to emphasize his point, he dropped his disguise. "I got them from Ero-sennin." Following his companion's lead, Shikamaru too dropped his disguise.

"What's this about?" Shikamaru asked. "You know we're not supposed to make contact until we leave the village. You're disobeying orders."

"You did it first," Naruto countered, sticking out his tongue. Shikamaru's eye twitched.

"How did you know that was me, anyway?"

"Nobody eats that slow except for you," Naruto said. "You were thinking." The blonde placed his hands behind his head and grinned, and Shikamaru had to hand it to him; he was more observant than most people assumed. He smirked.

"All right, so what do you want me for?" he asked.

"Well, I figured you should come back as my dad tomorrow," Naruto explained. "I was going to use kage bunshin – I've got a whole family – but I figured you know more about how dads act than me. Plus, whatever he says, you'll be better at figuring stuff out. You already heard today."

Shikamaru smiled outright this time, but didn't digress. "Did he say anything yesterday?"

"No, not really. Just getting to know him and stuff."

"It looks like you did a good job after all," Shikamaru chuckled under his breath.

"Was there every any doubt that I would?" Naruto exclaimed in his usual cocky manner. All Shikamaru could do was laugh.

"What time should we go back tomorrow?" the blonde asked after a few seconds had passed.

"Whatever time you've been going," Shikamaru replied.

"Okay. Make yourself look like this." Naruto transformed himself in a tall, broad-shouldered man with much tamer hair than Naruto himself, but still the same bright yellow color down to around his ears. He wore a long coat and big boots, and what looked like worn pants and an old shirt. Shikamaru transformed himself to match, and Naruto nodded his approval.

"All right then," the Nara stated. "I'll leave the way I came, and then sneak back in later tonight when it's dark, and we can leave together tomorrow." He changed back into the disguise he'd arrived in, and Naruto reverted to the guise of the middle-aged woman. They walked to the door, and Naruto waved him off politely as he walked away in the twilight.

The next day, Naruto and Shikamaru set out for the ramen stand a little before noon. Naruto was in his young girl disguise from the day before, and Shikamaru had disguised himself in the form Naruto had shown him the previous night. When they arrived, Naruto greeted the chef cheerfully.

"Ohayou!"

"Oh, hello again," the man smiled back at Naruto. Then his eyes shifted to Shikamaru. "Is this your father, then?"

"Yup!" It was almost disturbing how well Naruto could play this part.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the man said politely.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, as well," Shikamaru responded. It was troublesome, but he had to behave in a certain manner so as to make it believable that he was related to the girl next to him. "My daughter tells me this is some of the best ramen she's ever tasted, and that the service was very friendly." He smiled the way he'd seen his father smile many times to other adults back when he'd been just a small child.

"Did she now?" The man seemed pleased. "Well, it's nice to have a customer that you can talk to. Most folks just come, eat and leave."

"She likes to make friends," Shikamaru said. "We're on the road a lot, so she's become rather adept at making friends quickly."

"Yes, she mentioned that your family traveled. How often do you generally stay in one place?" The man handed Naruto a bowl of ramen (without even asking what kind she wanted, Shikamaru noticed) during the conversation, and the blonde was already busy inhaling it. Since Naruto hadn't given him any details on the family he'd made up, he had to make up something while keeping it somewhat vague so as to avoid potential contradictions.

"It varies," he said. "If business is good, we can stay in one place for a long time, but if not, we can move on very quickly."

The chef nodded in understanding. "It was that way for me when I started out. I only had a small cart and I couldn't compete with other venders. I was lucky to have come upon this village. There was no real competition here and I was able to set up a permanent stand and live here."

"It sure has grown then, if there was no competition when you arrived," Shikamaru said, looking around and observing the bustling village around him. It was almost as busy as Konohagakure.

"Oh, indeed," the man said. "It has become quite a prosperous town. And our ninja are growing in number and strength."

"Is that so?" Shikamaru asked, accepting the bowl the man offered him when Naruto waved it off (he hadn't finished his second one yet).

"Yes. In fact, you folks have come at a great time. Arima-sama's planning a big celebration for his coronation. I hear they're trying to get ninja from all the most powerful countries to come. It'll be a great festival."

Now this was interesting. If they were planning on inviting ninja from all the strongest countries, then that meant Konoha should have received an invitation as well, and as far as he knew, they had not. Also, that meant Kumogakure and Iwagakure would be asked to send representatives as well, and neither of them were exactly on good terms with Konohagakure.

"A festival?" Naruto asked. "Sounds like fun!"

"It will be," the chef said, smiling at the blonde. "And our village will be recognized for its strength throughout the world."

"We'll have to stay and see it," Shikamaru said, putting on a pleasant smile.

"Well that was interesting," Naruto said later once they'd returned to the confines of his sealed room.

"Aa. We'll definitely have to find out more about this festival and what they're planning on doing. This 'Arima-sama' must be their village's leader."

"What do you think they're going to do with shinobi from all the strongest countries?" Naruto asked.

"There are a lot of possibilities, and some of them aren't good for us. Given what we heard yesterday though, those are less likely." He paused to think for a moment while Naruto nodded along with him. "Keep going back until it's time to meet the others, and we'll see what they've uncovered. I'm going to go back to scouting the rest of the village. Don't risk trying to contact me again; if you need family members for something, use kage bunshin."

"Right."

"I'll be going now. See you in seven days." He slipped out of the house through the shadows, making sure to disguise himself before he did, just in case.

Seven days came and went, and the time had come for their team to meet back in the trees outside the village. All of them had arrived except for Lee, and Tenten was shaking her head.

"It's not right that he's late," she said.

"She's right," Neji said. "Lee has only been late for a rendezvous once, and that was in our first chuunin exam back in the forest of death."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. He knew what they were referring to.

"You don't think Fuzzy Eyebrows has been caught, do you?" Naruto asked.

"It's possible," Shikamaru conceded, "but it's too early to say. More likely he was delayed leaving the village. He can't disguise himself as effectively as the rest of us can, so he'd have to be extra careful and wait for an opportune moment."

"You're probably right," Neji agreed. "I'll see if I can see him." He activated his Byakugan, and it was a few seconds before he said anything again. "Yes, I see him. He's just left the village and he's on his way." Naruto and Tenten each let out a sigh of relief. A minute or so later, Lee joined them in the tree.

"Before anyone gives a report, Naruto and I have something we've discovered that we need to tell the rest of you," Shikamaru said. The others looked a bit shocked, but waited for them to explain. And so Naruto and Shikamaru explained what they had learned from the man at the ramen stand, and Naruto added something he'd learned later on: that invitations were being sent (they hadn't yet been sent) to only the villages of Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure and Konohagakure."

"Those are the villages where the leader is referred to as a _Kage_," Neji observed.

"Do you think they're trying to gather all the kage together?" Tenten asked.

"That's definitely a possibility," Shikamaru said, "And a likely one, at this point. From my explorations of the village, it looks like they're preparing for some big event. It's more preparation than I've ever seen for a simple festival."

"But wait, why would a ramen chef know all this?" Tenten asked.

"Given the nature of the information, and the way Shikamaru described the people of the village, it's most likely something they've been planning for some time. I noticed a definite air of excitement among the people I encountered. It's not surprising that even the civilians would know about it."

"That must mean it's happening soon," Tenten said.

"Yes, but 'soon' could mean anything from 'next week' to 'a month and a half from now,'" Shikamaru noted. "We really don't know. All we do know is that the invitations haven't been sent yet, or if they have, word of it hasn't reached the gossip chain yet."

"Given the travel times for delivering the invitations, the possibility of sending a response first, and then the actual travel time, it won't be happening for at least another two weeks," Neji said.

"Right," Shikamaru agreed. "So in the mean time, I want to know what everyone else discovered."

"Their missions seem to be focused on the mundane, for the most part," Tenten began. "Only about ten percent seem to be concerned with matters of the village itself, as compared to sixty-five percent back in Konoha. So they don't seem to be at war or preparing for war with anybody."

"That's good news," Shikamaru said, not wasting the effort asking her how she obtained that information. If it came to it, he could always ask her in private later. "It also means they're making more money than us at the moment, but that's not really relevant to our mission."

"Their academy training seems nothing out of the ordinary," Neji said. "The three genin that our comrades encountered in the chuunin exam appear to have been exceptional students, rather than the norm. However, the number of poor students was particularly low. I would estimate that ninety-five percent of their cadets would be able to graduate from the academy in Konoha."

"So they have tougher grading policies. That explains part of it," Shikamaru said. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Two younger siblings of the shinobi that Haruno Sakura fought are enrolled in the academy, and both appear to be above average students." Naruto's face took on an odd expression, but Shikamaru didn't have time to deal with that. It was Lee's turn to report.

"The ninja Sakura-san battled with is named Sabu Shiro. He is the seventh of nine children and fourth of five sons in a very prominent clan in the village. They have no known bloodline ability, but they have been known to produce many exceptional shinobi, and more than one of their ancestors has possessed the ability to learn jutsu of the _hyouton_ type. Sabu's teammates are called Shimoda Teiko and Yukimura Aomaru. Both are also from prominent clans in the village, but neither of them have any siblings. The three of them train with their sensei, Takashi Seta, every day, and they haven't received a mission since we've arrived."

"No missions?" Shikamaru questioned. "They were all promoted to chuunin, right?"

"Hai. They were all given the rank of chuunin, but they have not had any missions since we've arrived."

"_You said that already,"_ Shikamaru grumbled in his head. Out loud, he said, "That's strange. With their skill level, you would think that they would be sent out more."

"Perhaps they are being groomed for a special purpose, as with the three sand shinobi we encountered during the invasion three years ago," Neji suggested.

"That definitely can't be discounted as a possibility," Shikamaru said, "But there's still something not quite right about all this."

"What should we do, then?" Neji asked.

Shikamaru assumed his strategy position and all remained silent for a few moments. When he came out of it, he looked at them all and said, "We'll go back to the village for a week. Lee, I want you to keep watching those three; there's something going on with them."

"Roger."

"Naruto, stay at the ramen stand. He's been our best source of information by far, and we might learn the time frame we're dealing with for this festival."

"Right!"

"Tenten and Neji, I want you two to watch the jounin of the village – as many as you can. We need to know their skill level as well as the types of missions they're receiving."

"Understood," said Neji. Tenten nodded.

"Since you'll be watching jounin, there'll be a high risk. Be careful. I'll be trying to find out as much about this Arima person as I can. We meet back here in seven days." Four shinobi nodded in unison and then vanished from his view. Shikamaru sighed deeply and took a moment before heading back to the village himself. This mission was getting more and more troublesome by the day.

A week passed, and Shikamaru was preparing to leave the village again to meet up with his team. He hadn't found out much about the ninja known as Arima that he hadn't already known: the best ninja in the village at only 27 years old, he was their undisputed leader. The one thing Shikamaru did learn was that Arima seemed to generally care for the people of his village. That alone garnered him respect in the young Nara's eyes.

Shikamaru waited for a small break in the guard and silently stole from the village. This time, they would not be returning. They'd been in potential enemy territory for almost three weeks, and could not risk staying any longer. Discovery not only risked his team's safety, but a potentially friendly relationship with this village. That had to be avoided at all costs; Konoha could not afford another enemy at this time.

Reflecting on these thoughts as he dashed across the snow to the safe cover of the trees, he was suddenly stopped as his feet became frozen in place – the snow around them becoming solid ice and locking them still.

"Kuso," he grumbled under his breath. _"I've been discovered._" He removed his hitae-ate from his arm right away and hid it. Already he had begun taking stock of his surroundings, a strategy forming in his mind. The tree line was less than ten feet away. If he could make it into the trees, he'd stand a chance.

As he was scanning his surroundings, a mound of snow began to rise up in front of him. The image reminded him of Gaara rising from the sand many years ago during his fight with Rock Lee, and the ninja underneath it all was without a doubt the ninja that Haruno Sakura had fought only weeks before – Sabu Shiro.

"Not quite as careful with leaving as you are with entering, are you?" Shiro taunted. He was now standing on the snow a mere three feet in front of Shikamaru, who was still frozen in place. In the light of the nearly-full moon, he could see that the snow nin's face was still covered with a blue cloth mask, but the shape of his eyes indicated that he was smirking in a rather cocky manner.

"_Annoying brat,"_ Shikamaru thought. "Oi, I have no business with you," he said calmly. "Leave now if you don't want to get hurt."

The younger ninja laughed indignantly. "No business with me? I could have sworn _you_ were the one sneaking around in _my_ village. I'd say I have some business with you." He drew a kunai and spun it on his finger before grasping it firmly in his right hand. "Spies will be terminated on sight!" He yelled, charging at Shikamaru.

"Konoha senpuu!" Came a thunderous voice, and Shiro was sent sprawling across the snow. Rock Lee now stood in front of Shikamaru in his trademark fighting stance, right hand held out.

"Sorry I'm late, Shikamaru-kun," Lee said. "I was tailing them out of the village, but had to stay back so they wouldn't notice me."

"It's fine," Shikamaru said. "I caught the second one, so now there's only one left. There'll probably be two of him, so be careful."

"Dammit!" A shout came from behind them – an annoyed, female shout – and revealed the form of Shimoda Teiko, half emerged from the snow, with a thin shadow trailing across the ground from her to Shikamaru's still-frozen feet.

"How did you know I was here?" Teiko demanded. She couldn't hide the tiny shake of fear in her voice.

"As soon as I saw your teammate, I knew it was you who froze my feet to the ground," Shikamaru explained. "The ice holding my feet wasn't formed from the snow, it was flash-frozen from the air. You have a bloodline ability that allows you to freeze surrounding water vapor. It was obvious."

"I told you someone was following us!" Shiro shouted at his teammate, returning to his feet and pointing at Lee.

"But you still got caught off-guard!" Teiko shouted back.

"_Are they really chuunin?"_ Shikamaru sweatdropped.

"It doesn't' matter," Shiro said calming down again. "I can take both of them." He made a few seals, and then performed another technique Shikamaru had never seen. "Koori bunshin no jutsu!" A clone – presumably made of ice, appeared next to the young snow ninja. Then the real one charged at Lee while the clone attacked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru sweatdropped again. _"He's like Naruto. He always just charges right at the enemy without thinking."_ He drew a kunai, and Teiko merely mimed doing the same, as her kunai pouch was on her other side. Before he had to use it though, three of kunai flew downward from behind him along with five shuriken, and the clone had to move to evade them. It managed to block two of the kunai, but the remainder of the projectiles hit it dead-on, and it cried out in pain for a moment before it shattered to pieces. A second later, Shikamaru heard Tenten land nimbly on the snow behind him as Lee sent the real Shiro tumbling across the surface again.

"You should really know the entire situation you're in before you charge blindly at your opponent," Tenten said. Shiro made some kind of growling noise and slowly got to his feet.

"How many of you spies are there?" Shiro demanded.

Shikamaru chuckled. "That's the sort of thing you're supposed to find out before you attack," he said. "We know there's three of you, even if your other teammate hasn't appeared yet, but you don't know anything about us. Challenging experienced ninja on your own isn't the smartest thing for kids like you to do." He didn't want to fight, because even with Lee's exclamation of his favorite technique, there was a chance these snow ninja hadn't yet figured out where they'd come from. Lee was still in his disguise, so his hitae-ate was not visible, and Shikamaru made a quick check to make sure Tenten had thought to hide hers as well. She had.

"What are you doing in our village, anyway?" Teiko spat, still denied voluntary movement. "And where are you from?"

"Neither of those things are your business," Shikamaru said simply. These kids just loved to give information away. "If you needed to know, you'd know." By now he was quite sure that Neji had seen what was going on, and was waiting to appear when he was needed. Likely, he'd found Naruto as well, and the latter was waiting also. As soon as the third enemy appeared, they could make their move and escape.

"Oi, Shikamaru!" Tenten called as she threw two kunai at his feet, freeing him from the ice that bound him.

"Aa. Thanks." He stepped out and wiggled his feet around, trying to get some warm blood flowing to them again.

"You bastards," Shiro growled.

"We really do have no business with you, and we'd rather not hurt you," Shikamaru said again, "so just go home."

"I don't think so," came a voice from behind him. He turned his head to see a young shinobi with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes pop up from under the snow behind him. In his peripheral vision, he saw an identical person pop up behind Lee. Before he could react further, he was in a full nelson hold.

"I don't know how you know about my abilities or those of my teammates, or what you were doing in our village," Aomaru's cold voice rang in his ear, "but it doesn't matter. In a few seconds you'll be dead." He began applying pressure to Shikamaru's neck, and just as the Nara was about to counterattack, he felt his assailant being knocked away from him."

"Looks like I waited just long enough," Naruto's cocky voice rang out. "I knew you'd show yourself sooner or later."

"_Heh. Neji probably told him to wait,"_ Shikamaru thought, even as he gratefully rubbed the back of his neck. Six feet behind him, a little to his left, Shimoda Teiko rubbed the back of her neck as well.

"You're just in time, Naruto-kun," Lee smiled as he threw Aomaru off of his back. Evidently, the young taijutsu specialist hadn't needed the help of the Naruto clone that was standing next to him.

"What should we do with them?" Naruto asked, pumping his fists and cracking his knuckles.

"Nothing," Shikamaru said. "We're going to leave, and not fight them. It would do us no good to fight ninja from this village."

"So you're aware of our reputation, then?" Shiro asked with an arrogant grin. He showed only token signs of the beating he'd already taken.

"We do, but that has nothing to do with it," Shikamaru answered. "Your village is not our enemy, and unless you try to kill us again, neither are you. I'll say it one last time. Go home."

"Your talk goes nowhere, intruder," Aomaru said coldly. It was the one Lee had thrown off, and he was looking Shikamaru right in the eye. "_Kirigan!"_

For an instant, Aomaru's eyes became an even more intense shade of blue, and Shikamaru felt as if he'd been stabbed by an ethereal spear. He tried to move to react, but he could not.

"Teiko, whatever jutsu he used on you should be dispelled now," Aomaru said calmly. Sure enough, the young kunoichi stepped out of the snow where Shikamaru had held her with his Kagemane no jutsu.

"I can't move," Shikamaru managed to get out though a mouth that wouldn't open. He had to communicate that to his teammates in case they hadn't figured it out already.

"Oy! What did you do to Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted, pointing an angry finger in Aomaru's direction. The latter simply closed his eyes and laughed in a manner that was very reminiscent of Neji.

"I've cut the flow of chakura in his body," he answered simply. "He is now paralyzed, and will not be able to move at all." Tenten and Lee gasped, and Naruto swore.

"Shiro, Teiko, regroup," Aomaru called. Immediately the two of them and the other Aomaru formed around the one that had frozen Shikamaru.

"Now, we'll make you pay for infiltrating the snow village," the two Aomarus said in unison. "You will regret taking us lightly." Teiko dashed off toward Tenten, who had to leap back in order to keep some distance. Shiro made another ice clone and headed towards Naruto, who had both himself and his clone together now. Aomaru (both of him) went for Lee.

"_This is the guy that beat Sakura-chan,"_ Naruto thought as Shiro and his clone rushed forward. "_I'll get revenge for her now!"_ He prepared himself to defend, and blocked the first hit that came in from the Shiro on the right.

"Got you," Shiro said. He took the hand he'd used to punch and grabbed the arm Naruto blocked with. Within seconds, Naruto was frozen solid. "My koori bunshin is almost unbeatable in melee combat," he boasted. He kicked the frozen Naruto in the head, and the blonde disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"So you're the real one then," said the Shiro (obviously the real one) who was fighting the other Naruto. The ice clone came over to help. They'd made their way to only a foot or so from the tree line.

"That's my line," replied Naruto. Immediately afterward, he too vanished in a puff of smoke. In the few seconds that spanned Shiro's bewilderment, two more Narutos jumped down from the trees and landed kicks in their opponent's faces. For the third time, Sabu Shiro was sent sprawling across the snow. This time, however, he did not get back up, and in fact started to sink below the surface.

"Always save your trump card for last, and don't get too cocky if you don't know what your opponent can do, _baaaaka,_" Naruto taunted. Then he looked to see which of his comrades needed the most help.

The moment Tenten leapt back, she threw two handfuls of senbon at her attacker, just to hold her off. However, the young girl with the glacier blue hair whom Lee had said was called Shimoda Teiko formed shields of ice out of seemingly nowhere, and blocked them all. Then Tenten remembered hearing Shikamaru say something about this girl having the ability to control and freeze surrounding water vapor.

"_It looks like projectiles aren't going to work, then,"_ she realized as she landed back on the snow. As soon as she did, she had to dodge the two ice shields that had been thrown at her, and after she'd done that, the girl was right on top of her and she was locked in a taijutsu match.

"If you think you can beat me with this level of skill, you're mistaken," Teiko declared coldly. She was an incredibly skilled fighter, but not for nothing did Tenten have Konoha's greatest taijutsu specialist for a sensei. While by no means a match for this girl, she was at least able to hold her own until one of the others could help, or Neji made an appearance.

"You're obviously the weak link of your team," Teiko stated. This irritated Tenten somewhat, as she was very proud of and confident in her skills. She blocked an attack but was caught by a strong kick in the stomach, and managed to jump back a good distance before a finishing blow came. She immediately launched six shuriken at her opponent, and went into a short series of seals before calling out "Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu!" It was a skill that she has specifically petitioned Tsunade-sama to be allowed to learn.

"Koori ni naru no jutsu!" the girl yelled, and a wall of snow rose in front of her and hardened into ice to block the attack. Tenten used the opportunity to create four bunshin clones of herself, and spread them out. After a few seconds, Teiko leapt over her little ice wall with several ice spikes in her hands. She let them fly at Tenten and all of her clones, but each clone dodged perfectly and Tenten didn't have to give away which one of her was real. Then she and all her clones threw a host of kunai at her opponent, who now had no idea which ones to try to counter. She'd just landed on the ground, so there was no time to repeat her previous technique, and there was no way she would be able to form a big enough shield from water vapor in time.

What she did was crouch down into a ball with her hands held up, and attempt to form what looked like a dome around her with ice. Her vapor freezing abilities were, as Tenten predicted, not fast enough, and the two real kunai shattered the shield and impaled her right arm just above the elbow. She screamed out in pain, but immediately pulled the kunai out and made to throw them back at what she now obviously knew was the real Tenten.

The Konoha chuunin smirked and was already preparing a counter when a cord with a small weight on the end of it wrapped itself around the young snow nin's neck from behind. Tenten looked and followed the cord back to Naruto's hand, who was standing about fifteen feet behind his new captive.

"Don't forget about me!" he yelled, and he pulled on the cord, yanking the girl from where she stood, and throwing her over to where it looked like one of her teammates was already lying unconscious.

"I learned that technique from a suna nin named Sasori," Naruto said to Tenten, smiling proudly. "It's supposed to be a kunai and not just a weight, but Shikamaru says we shouldn't kill them." Tenten was half annoyed at him for interfering with her fight, and half grateful to him for helping her out, even if she wasn't sure she needed it. After all, she'd been waiting for help at first, right?

"We should go help Lee and Shikamaru-kun," she said. Naruto nodded, and they dashed off toward their friends.

Lee was ready for a strong opponent, but hadn't been expecting this much trouble. This Aomaru person he was fighting was not only highly skilled in taijutsu, he was able to coordinate his attacks to such a degree that he might has well have been two separate people with a telepathic connection. Even Naruto-kun wasn't _this_ effective with his clone technique.

He countered another attack from the front, and was about to shift his defense to the incoming attack on his right when he felt a strong gust of wind and his attacker was thrown off course. It was about time.

"Thanks for the help, Neji," he said, taking up his fighting stance once again while standing back to back with his long-time teammate.

"You look like you're having some trouble, Lee," Neji said conversationally. Despite their rivalry, which still survived, the two had grown close and had great respect for each other's abilities. "Be careful, neither of these two is a clone. They're both real people."

"Nani?" Lee said. "How can that be? I followed this team for two weeks and Yukimura Aomaru doesn't have any siblings, let alone a twin!"

"So you were spying on us then," Aomaru smirked. "And no, I don't have a twin. This is a family technique based on my bloodline ability to rapidly produce new cells. It's a living human clone."

Lee could sense that even Neji was shocked with that. But something didn't make sense…

"That technique you used on Shikamaru-kun…that was a bloodline ability too, wasn't it?"

If possible, Aomaru's smirk grew even bigger. "Yes, it was. My father is of the Yukimura clan, who can reproduce cells almost instantly. My mother was the last of the Inoue clan, and the _Kirigan_ was her family's bloodline ability. I have inherited them both."

"Two separate bloodline abilities…" Neji whispered in amazement.

"Now, I'll finish you intruders off with another of my family's techniques." Aomaru – both of him – brought his hands together in front of his body before performing a sequence of seals and calling out "Yukimura-ryu: Shiyoken no jutsu!" As soon as he said it, two new arms sprang out from his shoulder blades on his back, giving him for arms each per body. Lee was mildly shocked, but Neji just chuckled.

"If that's your trump card, you'll need at least six and probably more to defeat me," the Hyuuga said calmly. Aomaru seemed to accept the challenge and attacked both of them at once. Neither Neji nor Lee seemed to have any difficulty defending against four arms at once, and this only seemed to irritate their foe further.

"Lee! The trees!" Neji shouted.

"Hai!" The Azure Beast leapt up into the trees, and the Aomaru he was fighting made to follow him, but Neji called him back.

"You think you can take both of me at once?" They said. "Go ahead and try. I'll beat you quickly and catch your teammate before he can escape like you planned."

"Lee is not escaping," Neji said as he lowered his stance. "It is just that you are both within the field of my hakke."

If Aomaru was confused, he didn't have time to show it. Neji launched his attack, hitting both of them at once since they were so close together.

"2 strikes! 4 strikes! 8 strikes! 16 strikes! 32 strikes! 64 strikes!" The final blow put Aomaru down for good, with one of him landing on top of the other.

"Looks like you don't need any help after all," came Tenten's voice from behind him. A moment later Lee dropped down from his perch and clapped him on the shoulder.

"We need to help Shikamaru now," Neji reminded them.

"So nice of you to remember," came a muffled response from where Shikamaru still stood paralyzed.

"The flow of chakura has been stopped by cutting it off in your neck," Neji explained, his Byakugan activated. "If you fall unconscious it should return to normal."

"Pfsh. How troublesome. A technique that can only be countered by falling asleep. Well, go ahead then."

Neji tapped a pressure point on Shikamaru's neck and the Nara instantly fell forward into the snow, unconscious. Naruto then picked him up and shook him awake.

"Ugh," Shikamaru grumbled as he regained consciousness. "How troublesome."

"The enemy ninja have all been neutralized," Neji said. "We should withdraw."

"Not yet, you won't!" Yelled an angry female voice. They looked to see an injured but irate Shimoda Teiko holding three kunai in her good arm, ready to throw them. She had managed to revive Sabu Shiro as well, though the latter could barely stand.

"This is ridiculous," Shikamaru groaned. He pulled out a smoke bomb, though only his own team could see it. "Tenten, cover our escape."

"Right." She performed _shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu_ as a means of distracting the enemy, but just as Shikamaru was about to throw the smoke bomb, all the shuriken were deflected by various projectiles thrown from above and to the right. They looked up and saw standing on a tree limb a young man of about their age with long black hair, wearing a white robe that went down to his shoes. It split up each side to his waist to reveal thick blue pants, and had an emblem of a red diamond over a smaller blue circle on the chest. The sleeves were enormous, and he held them together in front of him like a monk. He sneered at them.

"You shouldn't have hurt my cousin," he said coolly. "Now I'll have to kill all of you."

"Musuka!" Shiro shouted excitedly, despite his injuries. The one called Musuka jumped down from his tree, flipping over as he did so, without once bending a single joint in his body that they could see. His hands and sleeves did not move.

"Musuka-senpai!" Teiko exclaimed. It was the first time they'd heard her sound anything like a "normal" girl.

"Who's this baggy guy?" Naruto chuffed.

"Musuka is the best chuunin in our village. He'll kill all of you," Shiro said matter-of-factly.

"Whatever," Naruto said. "I'll hold him off, and you guys go. Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Three clones appeared and rushed Musuka, who did not flinch or even move in the slightest. The real Naruto made to leave with the rest of them.

"Let's go, then," Shikamaru said. They made to leave for the trees, but ended up falling face first in the snow as they felt chains with weights on the end of them similar to Naruto's earlier technique wrap around their ankles. Shikamaru looked back just in time to see Musuka dispatch the last of Naruto's clones with a knife protruding form the toe of his boot, and saw also that all five chains trailed back to Musuka's left arm, which was now extended toward them, and up his cavernous sleeve.

"Don't think you can escape now," Musuka said in his cool, confident voice. "I told you I'd have to kill you for what you did to my cousin and his team."

"Hmph," Shikamaru snorted. It only took a few seconds for Lee to break the chains that held them. When he did, Musuka dropped the ends of them.

"This one appears very skilled," Neji observed.

"I told you, my cousin is the best in the village," Shiro taunted again. He was leaning heavily on Teiko's uninjured side for support.

"This is troublesome," Shikamaru said quietly to the rest of his team. "We're wasting time and endangering our mission and our village by staying here, and we have no idea what this guy is capable of."

"I can find out," Naruto volunteered. Before Shikamaru could tell him not to, Naruto had created five more shadow clones and sent them after their new foe.

Musuka chuckled slightly and then lowered his arms to his sides. Two-foot blades extended from each sleeve, and he then brought them back up to face Naruto. He dispatched two clones before the blonde ninja even had time to react.

"I'll back him up," Tenten said. She leapt in the air and hurled a myriad of projectiles, but as before they were all deflected by weapons thrown from Musuka's sleeves – as he was fighting Naruto, with the blades still extended from them.

"How did he do that?" Tenten marveled.

"Hidden weapons," Neji said. "He is apparently a master at the art of concealed armaments. That is why his robe and its sleeves are so large."

"You figured it out," Teiko said. "Musuka-senpai is the hidden weapons master of Yukigakure, and there's no way any of you can beat him." At that, Musuka finished off the last of Naruto's clones, which only served to incite the hyperactive ninja further.

"We can all together!" He yelled. "Let's go, Fuzzy Eyebrows!"

"Osu!" Naruto and Lee charged Musuka together, and Neji and Shikamaru sweatdropped.

"Why do they always have to make things up as they go?" Shikamaru whined.

As it is, this leaves him distracted and open for your Kagemane no jutsu, does it not?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, but I'll probably catch those two in it as well."

"No great loss." Neji smirked. Shikamaru returned the expression, and then activated his jutsu.

"No you don't!" Shiro yelled. He leapt from Teiko's side and jumped in the path of the shadow, interrupting it before it could capture Musuka.

"Kuso!" Shikamaru grumbled, preparing the technique again. His attention was stolen by a distinctly feminine shriek.

"Aaahh! Musuka-senpai, help!" All eyes were drawn to Teiko, who was now surrounded by three mysterious men in black. She was standing next to the still incapacitated form of Aomaru, whose two clones had fused back into one when they'd landed on each other. Apparently, the female yuki nin had already been cut across the middle by these new appearances.

"Enough playing," came a deep, commanding voice from just inside the trees. It was eerily familiar. "Just take the target and let's go." One of the men grabbed Aomaru's prone form and leapt into the trees just in time to escape from Musuka, who had come to help.

It was then that Shikamaru noticed the hitae-ate that the men were wearing. Naruto noticed it too, because the next thing he heard was "Shikamaru! Oto ninja!" The other two that were there leapt in to the trees after their comrade, and as Musuka made to pursue, an enormous fireball shot out from the trees. Moments after it dissipated, a tall figure emerged, with spiky black hair, a music note on his hitae-ate, and blood red sharingan eyes. Shikamaru and his team froze, and after a moment, the figure spoke, looking directly into Naruto's eyes.

"Thanks for making it so easy…Dobe-kun." The figure then vanished like a ghost back into the blackness of the night forest.

Wow, that was fun to write. The fight with Musuka was originally going to be drawn out longer, but they'd been fighting for long enough and this chapter was getting a bit too big. I was also going to introduce one of Shiro's siblings in this chapter, but decided to hold that until later.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and look forward to the next one, because the excitement is just getting started. I'll introduce a few more characters, and a couple more of Shiro's family members will make a cameo appearance.

And, of course, thanks to my prereader SJR, for making sure everything made sense, and catching those typos that I couldn't see.

Amagakure – Hidden village of the rain

Iwagakure – Hidden village of stones

Kirigakure – Hidden village of the mist

Sunagakure – Hidden village of sand

Kumogakure – Hidden village of the clouds

Koori ni naru no jutsu – Basically, "Becoming ice technique." It's a lame name, but I made this technique up on the spot and just called it the first thing that popped into my head.

Shiyoken no jutsu – Four-armed attack technique. This technique and its name are ripped directly from Dragonball.

Sasori – "Scorpion." Haha.

As always, if there are any terms I've forgotten, let me know and I'll add them. Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 5: Traitor

Notes: With the arrival of chapter 245 and thus Part 2 of the Naruto story, my interest has been rekindled. This is not to say that my interest was waning in any way shape or form, just that I'm more engrossed than ever.

Even though my story becomes more and more AU every week, seeing them grown up and stuff has reminded me how much I love these characters and why I wanted to write a story about them in the first place. You know that thrill you get when you first really get into something and it drives you to write a fanfic? It starts to fade over time, but I just got it again like I was getting it for the first time. Woo!

So now, without further ado, more stuff that we now know for certain will never happen in the Naruto universe, but would be really cool if it did.

Chapter 5 – Traitor

"Aomaru!" Teiko shouted as the four sound nin carried him away.

"I'm going after him!" Musuka yelled as he leapt into the trees where the ninja carrying Aomaru had disappeared.

"I'm coming with you!" Naruto hollered back and followed him. With a grumble, Shikamaru leapt after him, signaling for Neji and Tenten to come along and for Lee to stay with the two other injured snow ninja.

"What are you doing?" Musuka demanded as Naruto caught up to him. "It's your fault he was captured in the first place! Leave me; I can handle this on my own!"

"I could care less about what you want!" Naruto yelled back at him. "I'm after Sasuke!"

"Calm down, Naruto," Shikamaru said, having caught up as well. Then he turned to Musuka. "Their leader is a missing nin from our village. We've been hunting him for years, and he's the reason we're here in the first place. Your cousin and his team misinterpreted the situation and got caught in the middle before we could explain." It was an excellent excuse, and if he played his cards exactly right they could come out on top with the snow village after all.

"Assuming you're telling the truth, what would he want with Aomaru?" Musuka asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"We don't know," Shikamaru answered. "Though at least now we know why he was here in the first place, assuming that was his only goal."

"So you've been snooping around our village trying to catch this guy, is that what you're trying to tell me?" The hidden weapons master still seemed unconvinced. "Why didn't you come right to us and tell us from the start?"

"To be honest, we had no idea of knowing how cooperative your village would have been to us," Shikamaru said as they continued leaping through the trees after their quarry. "Also, the whole situation is a bit of an embarrassment to our village and we wanted to try to clean it up without anybody having to find out."

"Well, you blew that one, didn't you?" the snow ninja snapped.

"Blame your cousin's team for that," Naruto snapped right back. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," the Nara said. "Our first priority right now is to retrieve your comrade. There's no way you can do it alone, so you might as well accept our help."

"Fine," Musuka replied, narrowing his eyes once again. "I'll accept your help for the time being. What are we dealing with here?"

"Their leader is a former leaf ninja with extensive knowledge of fire element techniques," Shikamaru said. "He was the number one rookie of his year when he became a genin, and is a rare genius. He also possesses a bloodline ability that allows him to see through and copy almost any technique, be it ninjutsu, genjutsu or taijutsu."

"He sounds like a monster!" Musuka exclaimed.

"He is," mumbled Naruto quietly, more to himself than anyone.

"What about the other three?"

"We have no knowledge of them," Shikamaru stated. "They are from our enemy, the hidden sound village, and are most likely all chuunin or jounin. That's all I can say right now."

"So how are we going to beat them?"

"We're not," Shikamaru said simply. "We're going to overtake them, grab your friend, and run."

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled. "Shikamaru…!"

"That's the strategy, Naruto," the Nara said forcefully.

"But…Sasuke!"

"Retrieving their comrade is our number one priority. We can't risk him getting hurt or recaptured in a drawn-out battle. We'll take him and run. And before you say anything, there's no way you can take on Sasuke _and_ three sound ninja on your own."

"I can try!" the blonde continued to argue.

"But you won't. You'll carry out the mission as ordered. If Sasuke's finally made an appearance after all this time, you'll catch up with him again soon enough."

Naruto said no more, which Shikamaru knew was his way of grudgingly accepting the plan.

"We're coming up on them!" Musuka said suddenly.

"They know we're right behind them, so this is going to have to be fast," Shikamaru said. "We left right after them, so they won't have had time to set any traps. Go straight for your comrade; I'll cover you."

"What about him?" Musuka gestured to Naruto.

"Naruto's running interference." The Nara turned to the one in question. "Naruto, make sure Sasuke is off our backs. He's the only one who can stop us."

Naruto said nothing, but his face was set in grim determination.

"Can he handle that?" Musuka asked. "The way you described this guy makes him sound unbeatable."

"He can handle it," Shikamaru affirmed, glancing at his friend, whose expression was more set in purpose than he'd ever seen it. "If there's one ninja from our village who can handle Uchiha Sasuke, it's Naruto."

"They're coming!" one of Sasuke's subordinates yelled.

"I know," the Uchiha replied calmly. "Just make sure you don't lose that kid. Whether you help me defeat them or not does not matter to me."

"Hai, Sasuke-sama!"

At that moment, a storm of shuriken shot out of the trees from behind them and they scattered to avoid being hit. _"Pointless,"_ Sasuke thought to himself.

"Let him go!" came a voice, and a half dozen chains with various sharp objects attached flew at the subordinate carrying the prisoner. One of them with a claw caught his leg and he was yanked backward.

"_Incompetence,"_ Sasuke grumbled in his mind, and moved back to take charge of the situation. Another of his subordinates had come to assist the one carrying the prisoner, but was ceased in his movement when caught in a moving shadow. Sasuke saw his two targets and prepared to neutralize them when a familiar voice shouted out from the trees to his left.

"Sasukeeeeee!"

He turned and saw his blonde former teammate flying toward him. He twisted his foot in the air to catch a nearby tree limb and effortlessly dodge out of the way. However, just as the loudmouth ninja shot past him, another one dashed at him from behind. Again, he dodged in the nick of time. Now he found himself between two more Narutos, one from below and one from above.

"_Such basic tactics. He'll never change."_ Just as he thought that, he felt a hand grab around his ankle and looked down to see it coming out of the branch he was standing on. Then the branch spoke.

"You've gotten sloppy, Sasuke."

Naruto grinned, even though in his current form it was not visible to his opponent. Sasuke growled and twisted his foot loose, throwing an explosive tag into his face.

"Too bad, wrong one!" he taunted as he dropped down on his old friend from above, just as his tree limb clone vanished in a puff of smoke. He saw Sasuke begin to perform seals, and grinned again. He'd have to wait until just the right moment so that he couldn't be copied with that annoying Sharingan.

"Katon! Goukakyu no jutsu!" A giant ball of flame shot toward Naruto, who then began to form his own seals.

"Suiton! Suitaihou no jutsu!" a massive blast of water shot out of his mouth and hit Sasuke's fireball dead on. He used the opportunity to spring from below again and grab Sasuke in a sleeper hold.

"I've been training to fight you for three years," he said cockily. "You don't think I learned some techniques to counter yours?" With another annoyed grunt, Sasuke threw him off and kicked the one coming in from above into a tree. Neither vanished, and instead stood up again a moment later to continue the fight. For the first time in their encounter, Sasuke looked agitated. This pleased Naruto a great deal.

"We've got him!" came Shikamaru's voice. He looked over to see his teammate and Musuka attempting to retreat, but being hampered by holding Aomaru and fighting three sound ninja at once. Sasuke took advantage of his distraction and threw a kunai in his face, which he caught just before it hit.

"Kuso…" he grumbled.

"You'll never get out of here," Sasuke said. "You can barely hold out against me and that leaves your teammates outnumbered with a burden to carry." The Uchiha smirked. Naruto looked again and saw the three sound nin swooping in on his teammates. However, one was suddenly impaled with countless shuriken and kunai and fell to the ground dead, while another was blindsided by none other than Hyuuga Neji. Tenten appeared behind him a second later.

"Sorry we're late," the Kunoichi said, smiling.

"Never mind that, it's time to get out of here!" Shikamaru yelled.

"No!" Sasuke suddenly yelled. "Recapture the prisoner! Now!" But his two remaining subordinates were having difficulty making it passed the combined might of Neji and Musuka, and Shikamaru and Tenten were already on their way back to the village with Aomaru.

"No!" Sasuke yelled again. His mask of no emotion had come off, and he flew after them. Naruto dashed after him, and had five more clones drop down from the trees to cut him off.

"Go!" He yelled to Neji and Musuka.

"What about you?" Neji yelled back, kicking a sound ninja into a tree.

Naruto took one last long look at Sasuke, who was fighting off the five new clones that had jumped on him, and thought of all the training he'd done in the last three years – all the preparation he'd made for this day, when he would encounter Sasuke again and fulfill his broken promise to Sakura-chan – then he squinted his eyes shut and shook his head, turning to yell back at his teammates.

"I'll cover your escape!" He created another set of clones and sent them to hold off Sasuke's subordinates, while he went for Sasuke himself. Neji and Musuka shot a hesitant glance in his direction, and shot off after Tenten and Shikamaru.

"You can't fight me alone, Naruto!" Sasuke shouted in frustration as he watched his quarry escape.

"Watch me!" Cloning himself yet again, he lunged at his lifelong rival.

"They've stopped at the tree line," the leaf nin named Neji said.

"How can you tell?" Musuka asked.

"I can see," was the cryptic reply. Musuka didn't press.

"That's a good idea," he said. "Walking up to the gates with an unconscious member of our village probably wouldn't be the best idea."

"My comrade is making contact with them now," Neji continued. "Your cousin and his teammate are still with him."

"Why didn't they go back to the village?" Musuka remarked crossly. "They're in danger there!"

"They are in no immediate danger as long as Lee is with them, I assure you," Neji said. "Besides, they probably wanted to make sure their third teammate returned safely."

"What about your other friend back there?" Musuka asked. "Can he take on that monster guy and two other ninja by himself?"

Neji closed his eyes solemnly, but said nothing more than, "Uzumaki Naruto is not to be underestimated." Musuka did not reply. It seemed the ninja next to him held a great deal of respect for this Naruto.

"Here they are," Lee said as Neji and Musuka dropped out of the trees and landed next to the large group that had gathered on the snow.

"Musuka-senpai!" Teiko yelled, evidently relieved to see him safely returned.

"Where's Naruto-kun?" Lee asked. He sounded worried.

"He stayed to cover our escape," Neji said stoically. "Sasuke and two of his subordinates were still trying to cut us off when we left."

"That fool," Shikamaru said quietly, shaking his head.

"I will go and assist him!" Lee exclaimed.

"You will not," Shikamaru said bluntly. "Naruto knew what he was doing. If he comes back, he comes back. If he doesn't…there isn't anything you could've done anyway."

"This is true," Neji said. "The battle is most likely over by now, and Sasuke is either dead, retreating, or coming after this boy again," he pointed at Aomaru. "In any case, we must move from here."

"It's time to go back to the village," Musuka said. "Come with me."

They walked over the snow to a place where a path cut through, and for the first time the Konoha ninja could see that the snow surrounding the village was almost five feet deep. The road was wide enough for all of them to walk abreast if they wished, and they quickly made their way to the gate.

"These are ninja from the hidden leaf village," Musuka explained to the sentry. "They assisted us in retrieving one of our captured comrades. I would like to take them to Arima-sama." The guard seemed to consider this for a moment, and then nodded.

"Good," Musuka said. He turned to his young cousin. "Shiro, take them to Arima-sama, and wait until I arrive before you go in. I won't be longer than ten minutes."

"What are you going to do?" Shiro asked.

"If that last companion of theirs returns, he's going to need a way into the village."

Lee smiled, and he noticed that all of his teammates were as well.

"You have your orders then," Musuka said.

"Right," Shiro replied. "This way." He began leading the leaf nin toward a large building in the center of the village. Of course they already knew what this building was; it was the office of the village's leader, who everyone simply referred to as "Arima-sama."

Musuka sent one of the sentries to take Aomaru to the hospital to be looked over, and then waited by the gate. As nothing was happening, the remaining sentry spoke to him.

"What are leaf ninja doing here?"

"Reportedly, they were tracking one of their missing nin, the one who attempted to abduct Yukimura Aomaru. The story seems ambiguous, but as they helped us to retrieve him and as they also did appear to know the abductor, I have no true cause to doubt them at this point."

"So is that how those three got so beat up?" the guard asked, referring to Shiro and his team. "Some kidnapper missing nin?"

"No, they mistook the leaf ninja for spies and attacked them. I too mistook them for spies at first and joined the battle. It was at that point that the abductors arrived."

"Why didn't you bring back one of these kidnappers so we could question them? Are they all dead?"

"No, they were too powerful, and our priority was to rescue Yukimura Aomaru," Musuka said.

"So what are you waiting here for then?"

"I'm waiting to be impressed by someone," was all Musuka said.

"What?" The guard was clearly confused, but the hidden weapons master said nothing more.

Five minutes later, Musuka was about to leave and go inside the village, when a small whooshing noise drew his attention to the road in front of him and there, drenched in sweat and a fair bit of blood, stood a panting leaf ninja with spiky blonde hair.

"Did they…all go inside already?" he asked between gasping breaths. Musuka had to wait a few seconds for his astonishment to subside before he answered.

"Yes, they did. I was waiting here for you so you would be allowed to enter as well."

The blonde ninja in front of him smiled. "Thanks." And the two of them made their way into the village toward Arima-sama's tower.

"_Uzumaki Naruto, eh? I'll have to remember that name."_

The silence was maddening as they waited on the bottom floor of the one called Arima's tower for Naruto and Musuka to return. Neji was leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, though he would open them occasionally to observe those waiting with him. Shikamaru was sitting on a bench, hunched over with his chin in his hands, and Tenten was sitting next to him, watching Lee pace back and forth. The two snow ninja were seated on a bench on the other side of the hall. From their body language, they still didn't trust the leaf ninja in their presence, but were aware they could do nothing about it for the time being.

Neji was worried about Naruto; he would admit that much. If anyone could handle that situation, Uzumaki could, but it might prove too much for even him. And if he was worried, he could only imagine what this was doing to Shikamaru. As the team's leader, he took the life of each and every member of his squad as his personal responsibility. The Nara took this responsibility more seriously than any other commander Neji had worked under, and it was another reason for his great respect toward the younger ninja. Also, his captain was good friends with Uzumaki, and the loss would be on a personal level for him as well.

"How long did Musuka say?" the one called Shiro spoke up. He was evidently growing impatient.

"Ten minutes," his teammate replied. She looked at her watch. "He should be here any time now."

Neji's eyes could see the nerves of everyone on his team tighten up just a little bit more. He himself was having difficulty controlling his heart rate, and this displeased him somewhat. While he was also personally attached to the boisterous young ninja in many ways, it was unprofessional to dwell on such emotions while still on a mission. Such things were to be delayed until one returned home. The only one who had an excuse was the team's leader, as long as he kept himself under control.

"Naruto-kun will return!" Lee said abruptly, halting in his pacing and flexing is arm in front of him. "He will not be defeated so easily!" This diffused a bit of the tension, for Lee had finally voiced what all of them had been thinking about. Just then, they heard footsteps from down the hallway, from the direction of the entrance to the building. Every head spun, and saw a young man with spiky blonde hair being supported slightly by a young man with long, black hair and a white robe making their way down the corridor. Neji heard a collective sigh of relief from his team, and was surprised to note that he was included in it. He hadn't even been aware he'd been holding his breath. But there was no doubt about it, he was glad to see the blonde again.

"Everyone's here, then," Musuka said. "Let's go see Arima-sama." They made their way to a staircase at the end of the hall and began climbing. Lee went over to congratulate Naruto, and Shikamaru gave him a slap on the back and a no-doubt sardonic remark that made the blonde chuckle but that Neji couldn't hear. He was suddenly struck with what an important person Uzumaki Naruto was to so many people. If he had died, aside from his own grief his captain's, not to mention the other two members of his team, Hokage-sama would have been very upset, as would Jiraiya-sama. They'd both taken a particular liking to the boy. Hinata-sama also was very fond of him, even if it wasn't in the way most people believed, and of course the Haruno girl would have been destroyed.

As he watched Naruto banter with Lee and Shikamaru while they made their way up the winding stairs, even though he was obviously exhausted and still depending on Musuka to walk, Neji couldn't help but smile in spite of himself.

At the top of the winding staircase, there was a short hallway. At its end, Shikamaru could see a large wooden door painted light blue, with the kanji for ice embossed on it and painted a slightly darker shade of blue, flanked on either side by a ninja dressed in black. As he and his team and their escorts approached, he could see that one of them was male and one female, and each wore a ninja-to on their back. The appeared to be about Shikamaru's age, which meant they were either chuunin or extremely talented. Possibly both, though if young Teiko's words were to be believed, the most talented chuunin in the village was amongst them already. The guards stiffened when they approached, then softened slightly when they saw who was coming.

"Musuka," the young man said, "who have you brought here?"

"They are ninja from the hidden leaf village," Musuka replied. "I'm taking them to see Arima-sama."

"Are they here on a diplomatic mission?" the girl asked, eyeing the obvious signs of a fight on Naruto and the two snow ninja suspiciously.

"No, they're spies, Neesan!" Shiro yelled out angrily. The two guards instantly went for their swords but Musuka held up a hand.

"They are not spies," he said firmly, shooting an irritated look at his younger relative. "At least they do not appear to be at this time. I am not discounting the possibility, but for now they are here as friends."

The guards relaxed their swords but remained wary. Shiro looked furious.

"'_Neesan'?" _Shikamaru repeated in his head. Lee had said Sabu Shiro had a large family.

"You shouldn't let your emotions cloud your judgment, Otouto," said the young man guard in a lecturing manner. The young chuunin said nothing, but his ire was obvious.

"_So they're brother and sister," _Shikamaru deduced of the guards. _"Probably twins, based on their size, age and similar mannerisms. Interesting."_

"You can go in," the female guard said. "Arima-sama is only doing minor paperwork right now." Musuka nodded to her, and then to her brother, and pushed the door open.

They passed through the doors to see a large office filled with scrolls and old artifacts, and an enormous picture window overlooking the village of Yukigakure. In front of the window there was a large oak desk, and sitting behind it was a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with grayish blue hair that was about as tame as Inuzuka Kiba's. He wore a long, tan coat, and looked up at them the moment they entered.

"Ah, Musuka," he said, smiling. He seemed as friendly as the stories would have one believe, but it could just as easily be an act. "Who are these people you've brought with you?"

"They're hidden leaf shinobi, Arima-sama. They were in our village reportedly tracking one of their missing nin covertly when my cousin's team discovered them and attacked. A battle ensued, during which Yukimura Aomaru was abducted by the very missing nin in question. They aided me in his safe return to the village, though the missing nin escaped."

The leader of the snow ninja seemed to be taking this all in carefully, putting a finger to his chin and considering all he'd heard before he responded.

"What did this missing nin want with Yukimura Aomaru?" he finally asked.

"I don't know, Arima-sama, and apparently, neither do they."

The snow leader thought for another moment and then addressed Shikamaru.

"You are your team's captain, are you not?" he asked.

"Yes, I am," he replied calmly, not at all shocked that a ninja of this man's caliber could discern such a simple fact. It would do no good lie, anyway.

"What were your orders regarding this mission?" Arima asked.

"I'm afraid I can't fully divulge that to you, as it's official Konoha business, as I'm sure you understand," he said. "However, I am at liberty to tell you that the ninja we were tracking, one Uchiha Sasuke, has been classified as a Class A missing nin from our village for three years. He poses a threat to our village as well as to the people of the world in general, and our latest information had suggested he'd been investigating this village for some time. The only way for us to track him down without drawing attention to ourselves and while avoiding embarrassment to the leaf was to infiltrate the village ourselves in an attempt to discover what he was after." Shikamaru had to be extremely careful in making up this account, as it would be his team's death if it were to be refuted by any solid facts.

"I see," the snow leader said. "And in doing so you placed not only yourselves in danger but any of my ninja who might have discovered you and taken you as spies."

"It was a calculated risk," Shikamaru said.

"As all shinobi movements are," Arima replied. "Very well, I accept your explanation for the time being, and we do owe you our gratitude for returning one of our comrades to us safely. You are welcome to take advantage of our village's hospital to treat your own wounds, but I would like to speak with you again later."

"Understood. Thank you." Shikamaru bowed, and his team followed suit.

"Musuka, please take them to the hospital. Sabu-san and Shimoda-san are apparently in need of a visit there as well."

"Hai, Arima-sama," Musuka said as he bowed also. Then their entire group turned and left the great office. Shikamaru couldn't help but notice the appraising look the female guard gave them as they walked by – Neji in particular. He was sure the boy with the eyes that could see everything caught it as well, and that it made him distinctly uncomfortable. Shikamaru allowed himself a miniscule chuckle.

Their stay in the hospital was brief, as the only one in need of any real kind of treatment was Naruto, who of course always healed remarkably quickly. They were given a place to stay for the night, and then Shikamaru went to speak with Arima again. None of the rest of the leaf ninja knew exactly what they were talking about, but they knew it was significant because their captain was gone for most of the day. When he came back that evening, he told them he had important news for them.

"Naruto, you'll be coming back with me tomorrow," he said. "One of their shinobi will be joining us; he has a message for Godaime and Arima figures it would be safer if he traveled with us."

"Great! I can't wait to get home!" Naruto exclaimed. "It's so cold here."

"And us?" Neji inquired, indicating himself and his two teammates.

"Arima wants to draw up a preliminary treaty with the leaf village – something that will last until he can speak with Godaime directly. He asked that three of our team stay here to go over the details with him as well as a show of good faith. You'll be leaving in another three days, bringing a copy of the treaty to Godaime."

"Understood," Neji said. "Perhaps one of us will be able to discern what Uchiha Sasuke was doing here as well."

So the next morning, Naruto and Shikamaru set out with a snow ninja messenger as their traveling companion. One of the first things Naruto did upon their departure was try to pick up the trail left by Sasuke's departure. There wasn't much to go on, which frustrated the blonde to no end. Shikamaru tried once to convince him to give up on it, but didn't bother after that. They _were_ headed in the general direction of Konoha, after all.

A few days later, both Naruto and Shikamaru began to notice that they weren't headed in the general direction of Konoha – they were headed _precisely_ in the direction of Konoha. The remains of Sasuke's trails were leading them straight home. Worried, they picked up their pace considerably. Their companion seemed to have figured out what the haste was all about, because he did not ask them.

"What would he want to go home for?" Naruto asked after another day and a half. They'd been cutting back on sleep, so they were gaining on their quarry ever so slowly.

"I don't know," Shikamaru answered. "They'd kill him on sight, or at the very least capture and imprison him."

"This missing nin of yours," their companion asked them, "What were the circumstances of his leaving?"

Naruto and Shikamaru glanced at each other, and Shikamaru, sensing his teammate didn't really want to talk about it, picked up the explanation.

"He was enticed by Orochimaru of the hidden sound village to betray us and seek power there," the Nara explained. "Years ago, his entire clan was slaughtered by his older brother, and he feels his only purpose is for revenge. Any means to that end is acceptable to him."

"Orochimaru of the legendary sannin?" the snow ninja asked.

"Yes. He too was a traitor to the leaf, more than twenty years ago."

"And you have no idea what they might be up to?" the yuki nin inquired skeptically.

"We have ideas," Shikamaru replied, narrowing his eyes. He was asked no more questions by the snow ninja.

"Do you think going to Konoha has something to do with what he was trying to do in Yukigakure?" Naruto asked a few moments later.

"It's possible, but I doubt it," Shikamaru said. "Kidnapping that Yukimura seemed to be his only purpose there. More likely he's gathering information for Orochimaru before returning home."

"Heh. He'll never get back," Naruto said cockily. Shikamaru found that his smirk was infectious.

When they were less than a day away from the village, the trail suddenly branched out. Evidently Sasuke and his two remaining subordinates had split up to investigate whatever it was they were investigating.

"It looks like they were here less than a day ago," Shikamaru said. "This is the freshest trail we've seen."

"What do you intend to do, then?" the snow ninja asked. He was obviously wondering if they expected him to help them track the sound shinobi down.

"We'll continue on to the village, and alert them of what's going on," Shikamaru replied. "A team can be sent out to apprehend Sasuke and his subordinates, and find out what they're doing."

"What!" Naruto wailed indignantly. "He could get away!"

"Naruto," Shikamaru practically growled. "Our current mission is to report the current state of events to the Hokage and escort the messenger from the hidden snow village. If Sasuke is really spying, he won't get far before someone catches him. We'll be home before the end of the day, and someone who isn't travel-weary and has more support can chase him down."

Naruto was clearly not happy with that solution. Shikamaru was well aware that his friend wanted to be the one to bring in the rogue Uchiha, but there was nothing he could do about that.

"Let's hurry up, then," the snow ninja said. "The sooner we get there, the sooner you can send a squad out after him, and the sooner I can go home." The instant he finished saying that, his eyes bugged out in pain and blood spattered out of his mouth. He fell over dead with a kunai embedded in his back.

"Move!" Shikamaru shouted. He and Naruto leapt from their positions only to see the tree limbs they been sitting on become riddled with shuriken, kunai and senbon. A barrage of dart-shaped fireballs followed, forcing them into mid-air evasive maneuvers.

"It's an ambush!" Naruto shouted the obvious.

"It's Sasuke," Shikamaru spoke back loudly, even as he dodged more flaming darts and shuriken. One of the sound ninja they'd encountered outside of the snow village leapt out at him and he had to perform a quick kawarimi with a nearby branch to escape.

Naruto had immediately ducked for cover and produced clones. He took every precaution to make sure Sasuke couldn't see him – the most dangerous thing remained allowing his rival to copy his trump technique – but as he did not know exactly where Sasuke was, it was still a risk.

"Come out and fight me, Sasuke!" He called angrily.

"You're the only shinobi in the world foolish enough to face your opponents head on when you could defeat them in stealth," the Uchiha's calm voice floated back to him from the trees. "Let's see what you can really do. You left so quickly back in the country of ice."

Naruto growled. Running away from Sasuke was one of the most humiliating things he'd ever had to do, and the other knew it. The blonde forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down. It wouldn't do any good to allow his opponent to rile him up and get him too angry to focus.

"I see you have been training," Sasuke's voice came again. "You're not as hot-headed as you used to be." He sounded amused. A kunai flew from the trees and Naruto immediately turned and hurled one back, getting struck in the face in the process. The shadow clone vanished in a puff of smoke.

"You talk of fighting openly, yet you let your clones stand out while you remain hidden," Sasuke taunted. "I don't see why I should have to show myself if you won't."

"Fine," Naruto said, appearing out of a tree branch. Three more kunai flew at him from a completely different direction than before. Instead of dodging them or taking the hits, he caught them and hurled them back. Unfortunately, three more had been thrown in the shadow of the first three, and he did not have sufficient time to react to them. Two hit him in the stomach and on in his chest, just below his left shoulder. Naruto cursed and coughed up blood.

"Was that it?" Sasuke mocked. "You've been training to hunt me down for three years and that was all you could do? Disappointing." The Uchiha appeared in a flash on the tree limb next to Naruto, a tanto drawn and ready to deal a final blow. The blonde turned his head slowly to face his old teammate, now almost choking on blood.

"Always…save your trump card for last," he managed. As Sasuke swung his tanto, Naruto grinned madly, and as the sword hit him, he vanished into smoke.

"What!" Sasuke yelled, his eyes widening in surprise.

"How stupid do you think I am, Sasuke-baka?" Naruto yelled as he streaked straight down towards his adversary from a tree limb directly above. Even Sasuke had no time to dodge and could only bring up his arm holding the tanto to try and block some of the blow. They crashed into the forest floor several seconds later. Naruto used the shock of the impact to spring off of Sasuke's chest with his arms and landed on his feet about eight feet away. He wiped a trickle of blood from his chin as Sasuke got to his feet.

"How do you ever expect to beat you psycho brother if that's all you can do?" Naruto goaded. It was his turn to try inciting the ire in his enemy. "Your Sharingan is practically useless. It hasn't bothered me either time we've fought." He put on his best cocky grin to emphasize his point. Sasuke looked murderous.

"How did you do that?" he demanded. "Shadow clones always disperse after a direct or fatal hit."

"No they don't," Naruto replied cheekily, quite pleased with himself. "I just wasn't very well practiced in the old days. A skilled shinobi who can hold his focus can keep a shadow clone intact under almost any conditions."

"So you indeed have trained a lot, then," Sasuke observed. "But you used your trump card early."

"Not quite," Naruto said. He then proceeded to sink into the ground, popping up behind Sasuke less than a second later. The Uchiha's reflexes were perfect, however, and as soon as Naruto sprang from the ground his opponent whirled on him and threw a hard punch straight for his face…and was stopped from behind as he was put in a sleeper hold.

"Gotcha," Naruto said into Sasuke's ear as he held him fast.

"Now, you're gonna tell me why you were kidnapping that kid from the hidden snow village," the Naruto standing in front of him said. "Or do I need to beat you up some more first?" The grin on his face was wider than it had been throughout the whole fight. He'd been waiting three years for this.

"You always were overconfident," Sasuke said. Just then, Naruto's hands that were holding his captive in place started to burn. Sasuke's skin was painful to touch, and it was all he could do to hold on. His eyes widened in shock as the black markings of the curse seal made their way across Sasuke's body. Before Naruto had any time to react to the change in situation, he was hurled off of Sasuke's back into himself, and went sprawling into a tree trunk, where one of him vanished in a puff of smoke. When he stood again, Sasuke was standing still as a statue with glazed over eyes and the marks of the curse seal covering his body.

"Sasukeee…" Naruto growled, clenching his fists.

"Orochimaru wants to use my body for his immortality jutsu," Sasuke said. "I have not yet defeated my brother."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto shot back.

"He desires my body because of my blood limit ability. If I can find another candidate with a blood limit ability he finds more desirable, I may be spared this time."

"So you think that kid from the snow village would work?"

"He is the closest I have come so far. And he possesses two blood limits as opposed to just one."

Naruto smirked. "Heh. That Sharingan of yours didn't do you much good after all, did it?"

"It will be enough to defeat you…"

"...Dobe-kun." The last part came from right behind him. Naruto spun around and swung a kunai blindly, before seeing it hit another Sasuke right behind him. He swelled in horror. Had Sasuke seen him perform kage bunshin after all?

The kunai sliced through Sasuke's neck, and the Uchiha dissolved into a black sludge around Naruto's hand and melted to the ground. Too late, Naruto spun back around to have Sasuke's fist land in his face. He flew back toward the tree, and used it as a springboard to fly back at his foe. However, with the combination of the Sharingan and the curse seal, Sasuke managed to dodge every attack Naruto threw with seemingly no effort.

"Why don't you just leave Orochimaru's village then?" Naruto asked as he tried again and again to land a hit.

Sasuke backhanded him into another tree and waited for him to stand again before responding. "I can't," he said. He pointed to the marks on his skin. "This cursed seal does more than unlock my power; it steals away my free will. I cannot betray Orochimaru."

"Liar!" Naruto yelled. "It didn't affect you like that before!"

"Through my will and Kakashi's seal the curse was contained. I was aware of the full effects of the seal when I left for the sound village. It was the last thing I chose to do on my own."

"So you knew you'd be giving up your free will? Is that what you're saying?" Naruto could barely contain his fury.

"Yes." Sasuke said no more, and dashed in to attack again.

Shikamaru was having more than a bit of trouble with his two opponents. They never attacked simultaneously, so if he were to attempt a kagemane on one, the other would ambush him. For the last several minutes he'd been carefully maneuvering them into a position that would allow him to finish them off, and it was beginning to take its toll on his stamina.

"_Just one more…" _he dodged another kunai thrown at him and flipped back so his feet were clinging to the trunk of a tree that he knew the other enemy was waiting in. Discreetly, he extended his shadow up into the canopy and captured the ninja who was waiting there to ambush him. He pretended not to know where the next attack was going to come from, and made a show of surveying his surroundings looking for it.

The other sound nin seemed confused as to why his comrade wasn't attacking, because he wasn't doing anything. Shikamaru stepped forward down the trunk, causing the ninja he'd captured to step forward also, and off of the tree limb he'd been standing on. Consequently, he fell out of the tree, and his body shifted to reflect Shikamaru's horizontal status. Shikamaru then stood up, making it appear that the sound ninja was splayed out on the ground unconscious.

As expected, the other sound ninja flew out of his hiding place at the apparent effortless defeat of his comrade – right from where Shikamaru knew he'd been hiding. As soon as he was in range, he extended his shadow again and captured the second opponent with ease.

"_Finally,"_ Shikamaru exhaled in relief. He then formed the seals that would allow him to finish his two foes off.

"Ninpou: Kage kubi shibari no jutsu," me muttered. Shadow arms coiled up around his fallen opponents and by exerting enough pressure, he was able to strangle them.

"That was a troublesome fight," he said to himself as he crouched on the ground catching his breath. "It took longer than I would have liked." Still, he knew he had to go see how Naruto was handling Sasuke. He took another few seconds trying to get his breathing under control, and then he was off.

When he arrived, it was just in time to see Sasuke prepare that chidori technique he'd used in the chuunin exam so long ago against Gaara, and Naruto countered by preparing his Rasengan.

"_This won't end well,"_ he thought to himself as he tried to get a better angle to observe. The two combatants rushed at each other, and Shikamaru noticed that the strange black markings he'd seen on Sasuke once before were present again. He didn't need to be told what was going on. He remembered his fight with the sound ninja Tayuya and what the curse seals were capable of.

Naruto and Sasuke clashed, and for a split second everything seemed to freeze and the two techniques swirled around each other, and then there was a great release of energy and both of them were sent flying.

The blast was overwhelming and completely unexpected, and there was a stinging pain below his shoulder. Naruto hadn't planned on being sent reeling by the force of his own attack, but his uncontrolled flight continued for several long seconds before he came back into contact with the ground and tumbled along for another several dozen yards before finally slamming into a large boulder and coming to a stop. He was so dizzy he didn't even know which part of him was facing up, or which direction he'd come from. As he tried to get his bearings, the pain in his shoulder flared up again and he realized he'd been stabbed by something.

"_Part of Sasuke's technique must've gotten through," _he thought to himself. He could only hope that meant Sasuke had taken a hit as well.

As the world around him continued to spin, he used touch to feel where the ground was and maneuver himself into a sitting position. After that, he blinked fiercely a few times to get his vision straight again. There was no sign of Sasuke anywhere.

He made an attempt at standing, but collapsed again, and on his second attempt, a small explosion drew his attention to the direction where he believed Sasuke to be. A smoke bomb had gone off. Before he had time to think about what that meant, he felt the ground change beneath him, and looked down to see himself sitting in the center of a huge circle of blackness.

"No!" He shouted in a panic. But it was too late. He could feel the blackness encompassing him, and there was nothing he could do to shake it off. "No, I'm not finished!" His cries were in vain, for only a second or too later he was completely immersed in the blackness and he could feel it swallow him up. An instant later, he felt himself being moved, and then light rushed back to his eyes. Even though it was dusk, it seemed like midday to his light-deprived eyes.

"Shikamaru!" He howled. "Let me go back!" He tried struggling, but he didn't seem to have the strength at the moment. "You bastard!"

"You couldn't even resist my kage kakushi no jutsu," Shikamaru said plainly. "Even though you knew what it was. If I was an enemy, you'd be dead right now." The shadow ninja had him on his back, and was leaping through the trees in what Naruto could only assume was the direction of Konohagakure.

"So what?" he argued back. "I would have figured something out! I can't run away from Sasuke again!" The blonde's voice then suddenly dropped in volume and took on a very pained tone. "Not again…"

Shikamaru knew that this was a great matter of shame for his comrade, and though he didn't look, he was sure the blonde ninja had tears in his eyes.

"You're not," he said simply. "Back in the country of ice, you were following orders and protecting your teammates. Right now, I'm forcing you away against your will. No one will ever say you ran away." Shikamaru wasn't really big on giving comfort, but sometimes troublesome things were necessary.

"…"

"Besides, Sakura would murder me if she ever found out I let Sasuke kill you. And Ino would probably help her."

"Heh. Thanks…Shikamaru." Naruto soon fell asleep, and didn't wake up until they neared the village, where he insisted upon walking by himself. Shikamaru didn't understand at all, but there was no point in arguing about it. The wound in his shoulder seemed to have healed already, though the Nara couldn't figure out for the life of him how.

"You still can't walk by yourself," Shikamaru told him after the first few steps. He took Naruto's arm and slung it around his shoulder to help the other walk. Carrying another person on his back while already exhausted from a fight has slowed his progress significantly, so it was already midmorning of the next day as opposed to the original estimate of late evening.

They'd been walking that way for about ten minutes when the gates of Konoha came into view.

"We're home," Shikamaru said to his companion, in case the other hadn't noticed. Indeed, the other looked up and smiled when he saw the gates. Then the Nara noticed something else. The two sentries outside the village looked familiar.

"Is that…?" he started. Naruto made a questioning sort of grunt. Shikamaru squinted and when his suspicion was confirmed, he chuckled slightly.

"The village is sure asking for it, putting those two on guard patrol," he remarked. In another few seconds, Naruto also saw who it was, and an expression of rejoice covered his face, to be replaced only moments later by one of despondency. It wasn't difficult to discern why.

Shikamaru waited until he was within a speaking distance that wouldn't require him to yell, only raise his voice a little bit. "Oi!" he called.

"Shikamaru!"

"Naruto!"

The girls seemed pleased to see them, at least. Though he'd never tell anyone, that was always Shikamaru's favorite part of coming home from missions. At least the missions that didn't include his old genin team. The two kunoichi ran out to them, which was kind of funny, considering they weren't allowed to leave their posts. Whatever.

"Oi, Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted his friend weakly. "G-gomen." Then he passed out, leaving Shikamaru to support his full dead weight. Sakura looked confused. She wouldn't be for long, as soon as the obvious questions were asked.

"Where are the others?" Ino asked. That was one of them.

"Back in Yukigakure, finalizing a treaty the snow nin are drawing up. Well, they're probably finished and on their way back by now."

"But why are you two back early?" Sakura pressed. "And what happened to Naruto? You obviously didn't fight the snow nin if the others were working on a treaty with them." And those were the other two. Might as well get it over with.

"We ran into Sasuke."

"WHAT?" both girls exclaimed in unison.

"I'll explain later. Do either of you want to help me get this idiot to the hospital?" he gestured to the unconscious Naruto. "I need to give my report, and then I need some sleep."

"I'll take him," Sakura volunteered. She took Naruto from Shikamaru and slung him over her shoulders. "Go and give your report, then. But I want to know what happened as soon as you've had some sleep."

"Aa."

And with that, Sakura vanished.

"So…aside from Sasuke, did it go well?" Ino asked. Her voice rang with an emotion Shikamaru couldn't quite place, and her face shone with what looked like a mixture of concern and relief.

"Yeah, it did," he said. They made their way back to the gate. Ino of course could not leave it in the middle of their post, so any real conversation they wanted to have would have to wait until later. Not that Shikamaru minded; he had some things to do before he could go to sleep, and he _really_ wanted to go to sleep.

"Well, what happened?" Ino pressed, frustrated with the simplicity of his answer.

He spared her an irritated sidelong glance before elaborating. "We were caught just as we were leaving, but Sasuke showed up right then so we were able to pan the whole mission off as searching for him. It's a good thing we did, because Yukigakure would not have been our enemy and we could have made them one, which would have been a very bad thing. As it stands now, their leader wants to have some sort of 'mutual beneficiary' treaty or something. It's not really an alliance, but it's close enough."

"That's great!" Ino exclaimed. They had reached the gate.

"I guess," he agreed. "We'll need all the help we can get if Orochimaru and Sasuke are out there gathering up blood limits again."

"I take it that's part of what you're going to explain to me later, right?" Ino asked wryly.

"Of course." He grinned back. Just then, Aburame Shino appeared on the other side of the gate.

"I am Haruno Sakura's replacement while she tends to her teammate in the hospital," he said. He then strode to his post and said nothing more.

"I have to go give my report now," Shikamaru said. "I'm going to swing by the hospital after I get some sleep, so I'll see you there, okay?"

"All right." He turned to leave. "Shikamaru?" Ino's voice called him back once more, but it was uncharacteristically quiet this time. He turned again.

"Yeah?"

She looked him in the eye, and offered him a genuine smile – the kind he didn't get to see from Ino very often. It was too bad; it looked good on her.

"I…I'm glad you're back…and that you're all okay," she said. This atypical fragility caused Shikamaru to let go of his usual cynicism and spare one more moment to smile back at his friend and teammate before setting off to finish up his mission.

"Aa."

Done. Whew! That was a tough one. I didn't want to repeat the fight between Naruto and Sasuke that happened in the manga, but at the same time I needed a similar conclusion. Also, some of the plot elements I'm using took place in the manga, or are contradicted slightly by events in the manga, but you have to remember that this breaks off right after 212, or when the Sand ninja showed up. It's tough, but I'm finally getting to the point where it won't matter any more.

Also, since some of you couldn't figure it out even though I though I made it quite clear, Musuka is one of my absolute favorite characters that I made for this fic. He's just so damn cool.

And lastly, there has been a change that will also be retroactive as soon as I get around to fixing it in the earlier chapters. Aomaru's surname, "Yukimora," doesn't mean anything. I had originally intended for his name to be "Yukimura," but a typo that occurred when I first introduced him changed it, and I thought it sounded cool so I kept it. Upon further consideration, I have decided that I do not like it, and will be changing it back to the original Yukimura. This way, it can be written in kanji, and the original pun that I had in mind for his name will make sense again. ("Yukimura" means "snow village.")

As always, thanks for reading. If you liked it, please leave a review so I know there's people out there reading and enjoying this. It also helps me to get better (as long as you leave some constructive criticism, anyway. P)

Suiton! Suitaihou no jutsu – Water element! Water cannon technique

Ninpou: Kage kubi shibari no jutsu – Shadow neck bind technique

Kage kakushi no jutsu – Shadow concealment technique


	7. Chapter 6: Diplomacy

Welcome back once again. This chapter will be a bit more laid back, as I need the break and I think the characters could use one too. They've pretty much been going non-stop since the start of this thing, haven't they? This one will let me relax a bit for a change while still advancing the plot. Woo!

And just as a side note, I always write these notes as soon as I start writing a chapter, and then write the end notes as soon as I finish. Sometimes it can be months in between, so that's why they're rarely if ever related. Haha.

Chapter Six – Diplomacy

Naruto recovered quickly, as he always did. He was out of the hospital within a day and back to training again. Sakura was worried about him because whenever he looked at her he would get a far-off look in his eyes reminiscent of the time Sasuke had escaped for good. Then he would avert her gaze completely. It was very unlike him.

She knew, no matter how Shikamaru tried to help him by rationalizing it, that Naruto felt he had failed somehow in fleeing from Sasuke. It wasn't just that he felt he failed in a mission, but that he'd failed her; failed to uphold that promise from when they were kids that he would never give up on until its realization or his death. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, that she wasn't upset at all and was merely relieved that he was all right, but she couldn't talk to him. Every time she tried he would look at her with those piercing blue eyes that she just knew were barely restraining tears and she would feel a great lump in her throat; by the time she managed to fight past it to speak, he'd already have turned and left.

She'd been spending time in the hospital with Hinata and Shizune. While there visiting Naruto, she'd observed them practicing medical ninjutsu and something inside her made her try it out. With any luck she could develop a skill for it and she could be there alongside Naruto the next time he clashed with Sasuke instead of waiting for him to come back.

As it turned out, she had quite a knack for it. She managed to catch up with what Hinata had learned very quickly and soon surpassed her friend. Even Tsunade had taken an interest in her natural talent and after some convincing had agreed to train her in her extra time. This pleased Sakura greatly, for she enjoyed learning under the older woman and it made her feel like she was truly good at something for once. Ever since her childhood she'd always looked up to someone else – first Ino, then Sasuke, then Kakashi-sensei and then at last Naruto. This was something special that _she_ was good at and could make her own. She initially felt bad about moving in and showing up Hinata, but the smaller girl didn't mind at all. She just smiled and congratulated Sakura on her success, and said she would continue studying under Shizune. She wanted to be a medical ninja for her team and her friends just as Sakura did.

So time passed during all this, and before long it had been five weeks since the return from the mission to Yukigakure. The message that Shikamaru had retrieved off the fallen snow ninja had turned out to be an invitation for the Hokage and whatever entourage she felt was necessary to some sort of festival or ceremony in Yukigakure that would be held at the end of August – now only another week and a half away. That meant that Tsunade and whoever was going with her would have to set out in another three or four days. Sakura assumed that her new mentor would choose several highly skilled shinobi to accompany her, as the message wasn't exactly particular about what this festival was for. Her surprise was great then, when Tsunade informed her that she would be going.

"Eh?" Sakura blurted intelligently. "Why would you want me to go?"

"If I'm going to teach you to be an elite medical ninja, I can't just leave a month-long gap in your training," Tsunade said. "Like it or not, you've got Shizune's old job until I'm completely satisfied with your abilities."

Sakura wasn't sure if that was good news or not, and she thought she may have just been told she was the Hokage's new attendant. Having recovered her wits, however, she did not protest. She merely asked who else would be coming along.

"Why, did you have someone in mind?" her teacher asked, smirking.

Sakura was confused. "Excuse me? I…don't understand."

"I bet you don't," Tsunade said, still smirking. "Anyway, I haven't yet decided who else will be going. It depends on the state of affairs within the village, who's available and who's appropriate for such a mission."

"Oh, I see. So you'll be making your decision in the next few days, then?"

"Yes, that's right," the Hokage said. "I need to observe any candidates and then decide who'd be up for it."

"_Isn't that just another way of saying you're putting it off until the last minute?"_ Sakura thought. Out loud, she said, "That makes sense."

"We're done for today, by the way," Tsunade said. "Excellent work, as usual. You're really coming along. Your chakura control is perfect. I've never seen anyone as gifted as you in that regard."

Sakura swelled with pride. "Arigatou, Hokage-sama." She bowed. "I'll be going now." She turned to leave, but Tsunade called her name just as she was passing through the door.

"Sakura."

"Hn?" She turned her head to look. Her mentor was wearing a strange, almost amused expression.

"If you think of anyone, let me know."

"Hai." She left the office, thoroughly confused.

Normally at this time, she would stop by Ino's family's flower shop, but her friend was currently out on a mission with Asuma and Shikamaru and would probably not be back until the next day. This left her at a loss for what to do. She could go by the academy and visit Chouji, but she'd never gone without Ino and it would feel strange. For a moment she entertained the thought of searching through the current mission register for available shinobi who would be appropriate for the coming venture to the ice country, but the thought of doing her mentor's work for her didn't sit right.

No, there was only one place she really wanted to go, and she told herself she might as well stop fighting it and just go there. After a month and a week Naruto was still not talking to her, and it was frustrating and hurtful and infuriating all at the same time. His stubbornness was maddening, yet she knew he was doing this as some sort of self-imposed punishment on himself, and that tore at her heart. But if he would just stop being such an _idiot,_ he would realize that it wasn't the least bit _necessary._ She didn't know whether she wanted to yell at him, hug him or beat him over the head with a sledgehammer.

She might settle for all three.

She found him where he always was – training by himself in the woods up and behind the Hokage monument. Hinata, who had always admired him and used to watch him when they were younger, had once told her that he liked to come up here to get away and just train in his own way for as long as he wanted. She had come to see him there several times since, and until recently he'd always seemed glad to see her. That was another part of what made the whole thing that was going on now feel so _wrong._

She climbed up the hill and walked through the woods to the clearing where he trained and sure enough, Naruto was there, jumping around over obstacles he'd set up, throwing kunai and shuriken into targets attached to the trees, and practicing every fire and water jutsu he knew. She found an old fallen log and sat on it, mesmerized by his movements. It had been a while since Sakura had seen Naruto train – _really _train. When they trained as a team he would always hold back, and he hadn't had to go all out on a mission in a long time. Not on any missions she'd accompanied him on, anyway. She was amazed at how far he'd come. And the number of water jutsu he knew was astounding. She knew he'd petitioned Kakashi-sensei to teach him some, but she had no idea he'd learned so many. And more impressive was that the only water around was underground, linked to a hot spring a good five-minute walk away.

For the longest time she simply watched him. It was comforting in a way. This was the Naruto she was used to: determined and giving his all. As soon as she got up to speak to him he would return to that guilty, atoning shell he'd been for the past five weeks.

She knew he was aware of her presence; he'd make a very poor ninja if he wasn't. But still he said nothing and continued with his exercise. He looked so confident when he trained, and it was a shame that would all go away when he stopped. She thought back on all that had happened to make him feel this way, and a painful feeling arose in her gut. For the longest time after Sasuke's betrayal, she'd felt hurt, heartbroken, and even guilty.

But that was all because of things _she'd_ wanted. Things _she_ wished were different. Now, looking out at Naruto, she felt none of these things. She hadn't for some time, truthfully. She'd come to terms with the fact that Sasuke wasn't who she'd wanted him to be long ago. But seeing her teammate so torn up inside over things he had no control over did something to Sakura that she couldn't quite explain. True, she still harbored an agonizing feeling of guilt, but for a different reason than before. And that wasn't it either.

For the first time in her life, Sakura found herself feeling _angry_ with Uchiha Sasuke.

-

He knew she was watching him; he'd make a pretty pathetic ninja if he didn't, especially since she wasn't really being discreet about it or anything. But he refused to allow it to disrupt his concentration. Running away from Sasuke was the most humiliating thing he'd ever had to do in his whole life, and he'd done it twice in the same mission. It didn't matter what Shikamaru said to try and rationalize it; the fact of the matter was he still ran away. And he'd failed to uphold his promise to Sakura-chan _again…_

Naruto twirled in midair and hurled another kunai at one of the targets he'd set up. He forced himself to not think about those things for the moment, and just focus on his training. If he couldn't focus, he'd never get better. And if he never got better, he could never fix things.

…

She was just _sitting_ there. Just sitting there, watching him openly. It was more distracting than he cared to admit. He told himself not to pay any attention to her, but he was never any good at not paying attention to Sakura-chan. And the worst part of it was, he really _did_ want to go talk to her, but still felt too ashamed to do so.

He spun once more and threw three shuriken at a target far on the other side of the clearing. They hit it, but not dead on. He growled.

She was resting her chin in her hand, with her elbow on her knees. Her eyes were partially glazed and she had a kind of half-smile on her face. To the casual observer, she probably looked like she was just daydreaming. He had the strangest feeling that she wasn't, though. He'd seen her watch Sasuke in much the same manner back when their team was first formed, and it made him distinctly uncomfortable now because he had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He stopped moving and started walking over to her. She wasn't going to go away anytime soon, and the only way to avoid talking to her would be to run away, and he was _not_ that cowardly. He would face her, and apologize, and take whatever came after that like a man. Because he _was_ a man, dammit. And Uzumaki Naruto did not run away from anything. Well, almost anything, he reminded himself bitterly.

She didn't straighten up or even shift her position when she noticed him approaching, and that could be a good or a bad thing. Her smile grew wider though, which confused him. Surely she was upset with him, right?

"That was really impressive, Naruto," she said as he came within casual speaking distance. "You've really gotten better, haven't you?"

"Eh…I guess so," he said nervously, not looking in her eyes.

"I didn't want to interrupt, so I thought I'd just watch. Hope you don't mind," she said. She'd sat up straight now and had both hands in her lap.

"Er, no, I don't mind," he stammered, still looking anywhere but directly at her. "Anou…Sakura-chan…"

"Naruto, how come you've been avoiding me ever since you got back from the hidden snow village?" she came right out and asked. In his surprise he snapped his stare to meet hers for just an instant, and then quickly turned away again. Her friendly tone was gone and replaced with one of…concern? That couldn't be right. But at least she didn't sound angry.

"Well, I…" He scratched the back of his head and fixed his eyes on a leaf on the ground in front of his shoes that had suddenly become very fascinating.

"Naruto," she interrupted. He heard her stand up and take a few steps over to him. Her feet entered his field of vision and she stopped. He gulped. "Look at me," she said firmly. When he didn't, she took hold of his chin with her right hand and forcefully raised his eyes so that she held his gaze. She was a couple of inches shorter than him, but at that moment Naruto felt about a foot tall. Words failed him.

"I don't care that Sasuke escaped again," she stated stiffly. "There was nothing you could have done and you know that. I know that. What I care about most of all is that you and everyone else came back okay. So I want you to stop beating yourself up over it. Do you understand me?" Naruto was shocked. He imagined absently that this must be what it felt like to be scolded by one's mother. Still, he couldn't yet absolve himself of his guilt.

"But…Sakura-chan…" he tried, but found his throat constricting on any additional words.

"But nothing," she said fiercely. Her voice was rising in volume and he could see the start of tears in her eyes. Not that…anything but that. He'd promised himself years ago that no matter what, he'd never make Sakura-chan cry.

"I can't stand seeing you like this," she told him. She was fighting to keep from breaking down and he could see it. He was, too. "It's because of that promise you made to me, that I made you make to me…" she trailed off. He opened his mouth to say something, to say that he made that promise because he wanted to, because he wanted her to be happy, but she covered it with her left hand and he could say nothing.

"Listen to me," she said with what little composure she had left. "You fulfilled that promise three years ago when you _did_ bring Sasuke back, just like you said you would." She paused for a moment to take a breath, and then continued. "It's not your fault he ran away again. There was nothing you could have done about that. I've never for a moment thought otherwise, or blamed you for it, or been angry or upset with you because of it. Do you understand me?" She repeated that last line from before, only this time it was with a much shakier voice. She didn't seem capable of saying anything more.

For a long moment he looked at her, not doing or saying anything or even daring to breathe. Both of her hands had dropped a bit and were now resting just below his shoulders, and her tears were now starting to leak and fall down her cheeks. She was begging him with her eyes to just let it all go, and as always, he could not deny her. He relaxed his muscles that had been tense for the duration of the conversation thus far, and offered her the faintest hint of a smile.

"Gomen ne, Sakura-chan," he said softly.

She collapsed into him and buried her face in his chest, crying. He embraced her – tentatively at first, and then almost fiercely – and felt tears leaking out from his own now closed eyes. Naruto did not know how long they stood there in the clearing, but he felt infinitely better when they finally left, and at the same time it didn't last long enough.

-

Ino smiled as the early dawn twilight illuminated the gates of her home as she, Shikamaru and Asuma returned from their espionage mission earlier than originally planned. It truly was a beautiful sight. But that wasn't the whole reason she was smiling.

"I'm glad we got back early," she said cheerily. "Now I can clean myself up and get some rest before I have to do anything again."

"We would have gotten back even earlier if you hadn't made us stop in that last town to buy those earrings," Shikamaru scowled. He was walking alongside her while Asuma brought up the rear.

"Oh, quit whining," she said, still not losing her good humor. "I haven't bought anything for myself in almost four months, and they were just too pretty to pass up. Besides, it's because of me that we finished so quickly anyway." She smirked as she reminded her teammate of that last bit.

"Tch," was all he said. But he didn't really look annoyed.

Ino grinned to herself. Shikamaru would of course never say directly that he was proud or impressed with anything she did, but she could tell when he was. Asuma had told her after they'd completed this mission that she'd done exceptionally well, and that made her very happy, but not nearly as happy as that non-committal, monosyllabic response Shikamaru had just given her. Her teammate would never expend the energy necessary to argue with her, but he was not above griping and complaining. In that sense, his silence on the issue was the greatest praise she could receive.

A conversation she'd had with Sakura a week or so ago popped into her mind.

"_Sakura, why is it that you still work so hard to be a ninja?"_

"_What do you mean?" The pink-haired girl narrowed her eyes, and Ino quickly raised her hands in defense. _

"_No, no, I don't mean that. I mean…what's your reason for wanting to be strong?" She was genuinely curious, and it seemed to come across because Sakura paused for a moment to seriously consider the question. But more than that, Ino was dying to know whether her friend's reason would be similar to her own._

"_I want to protect the people important to me," Sakura said finally. Ino rolled her eyes. _

"_I know that!" she said. "Everybody has that reason! I mean, what's the main motivation you have to be great?" _

_Sakura fidgeted, and Ino instantly realized that the other girl's previous answer had been an evasive one. Now she was _really_ curious._

"_Well, when I was little, it was because I looked up to you, and wanted to be like you," Sakura started. Ino was genuinely surprised at the answer, but let her friend continue. "After that, I tried really hard because I wanted to…to impress Sasuke." Sakura paused a moment to look ashamed, and Ino did as well. Even if things had gone differently and Sasuke hadn't turned out to be a traitor, it wouldn't change the fact that neither of them were proud of ever having such a petty, childish reason to be a ninja._

"_And, even when I still had a crush on Sasuke," Sakura went on, "My reason kind of became you again. Only this time it was because I didn't want to lose to you." Both girls smiled._

"_I remember that," Ino said._

"_When I look back now, I'm ashamed at how I used to be," Sakura said._

"_So what is your reason?" Ino asked again, not wanting her friend to dwell on her negative feelings._

_Sakura fidgeted some more before finally answering. "Naruto."_

"_Eeehhh?" Ino exclaimed in shock. "But how is that any different than…?"_

"_No, I don't mean like that," Sakura said quickly, even though she did have the smallest hint of a blush on her face. "It's just that…Naruto's always been so strong, and I don't just mean as a ninja. Ever since he was a kid, he's never let anyone tell him he couldn't do something he wanted to do. And if they did try to tell him that, he'd work for it even harder. I can always depend on him, but even though that's true and he's always stayed my friend, he doesn't really need _me_ anymore. So…I want to become strong, so that I can be there for him if he ever does. I want to help him achieve his goals. That has become my ninja way."_

_Ino was rendered speechless. Admiration for her childhood friend swelled up inside of her, and she almost felt jealous._

"_What about you, Ino?" Sakura finally asked, as the blonde knew she would. _

_Ino smiled, and said simply, "Shikamaru."_

"_Eh? Really?" Sakura had a sly look in her eye that Ino distinctly didn't like._

"_Don't go getting any ideas," she said firmly. "I have a perfectly good reason, you know."_

"_Well let's hear it, then," Sakura said. That irritating smirk would not leave her face. Ino wanted to strangle her, but instead just sighed deeply and explained._

"_Shikamaru and I have known each other since we were little," she said. "Since our fathers were on the same team and all, and also because the Yamanaka clan and the Nara clan have always been close."_

"_I know all that already," Sakura said. "It's the same with Chouji too, and his clan."_

"_Would you let me finish?" Ino snapped. Sakura threw up her hands and sweatdropped._

"_Gomen, gomen! Go on, then."_

"_Well anyway, we got along okay when we were kids, though he and Chouji knew each other a lot better. But when we got to the academy, I guess I started treating him pretty badly."_

"_Because of Sasuke?" Sakura asked._

"_That was probably most of it," Ino replied sardonically. "But he never really complained about it. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever apologized for it, either. And when we were put on the same team, I was angry because I wasn't put on a team with Sasuke. I took it out on him and Chouji, even though it wasn't really their fault."_

_Sakura giggled a bit. "I think I know what you mean. I was mad at Naruto also, even though I _was_ put on a team with Sasuke."_

_Ino laughed a bit as well at that. "And of course I let them know right from the start that I was going to be the leader of the team," she said. "I was the best kunoichi of our class and I thought I knew everything. As far as I was concerned, I had two useless teammates, and they had to listen to me to make up for it." She paused to take a breath and – unbeknownst to Sakura – mentally berate herself again for what had to be the thousandth time._

"_And then we had our first chuunin exam. Of course by that point I'd realized that my teammates weren't useless at all, but I still considered myself the best out of the three of us. And I was really proud of Shikamaru when he did so well in his fights, and then when he was promoted when no one else was. But it was soon after that when I realized how foolish I'd been."_

"_What do you mean?" Sakura asked, all joking gone from her demeanor now._

"_I mean, what right did _I_ have to be proud of _him_?" She said bitterly. "He was better than me, and had always been better than me, but I'd been too arrogant to see it. And he just went along with me the whole time, never arguing, never complaining, because he was too laid-back to say anything about it. If it meant he didn't have to work as hard, he didn't mind letting me think I was in charge. But he must have thought I was so foolish."_

"_No, I'm sure he didn't," Sakura said, reaching across the table they were sitting at to rest her hand on Ino's in comfort. Ino just scoffed._

"_Of course he did. There I was, acting all superior, and he was the smartest of us all by far. He could be the greatest ninja in the village if he wanted to be, but he's content where he is. Sometimes I don't think he even appreciates how good he truly is._

"And after I realized all of this, I felt humiliated by the way I'd been acting for so long. I decided that my ninja way would be to make it so that none of it was an issue anymore. I would work hard and become what I'd always claimed to be, and one day I'd make Shikamaru proud of me." 

"_But he is," Sakura said. "He is proud of you. He was proud when you became a chuunin, and he was proud of you after our mission in the daimyo's castle. You know he was."_

"_Of course I know that. He'd never say it, but I know. But that's not the point. What kind of ninja would I be if I got what I'd been working for and then just stopped? I want him to always be proud of me. It's my way of atonement for the foolishness of my childhood."_

Talking about the whole thing with Sakura had not only made her feel better, but it only served to reassure her that her chosen ninja way was the right one. As they approached the gates of Konoha and prepared to enter the village, Ino looked over at her long-time teammate, who'd just given her another sidelong glance out of the corner of his eyes, and offered him the biggest grin she could fashion.

-

Shikamaru could never really figure that girl out. Right now, she was grinning at him like he'd just bought her her own island or something. While it was a good look on her, he had no idea what she was on about and decided to himself that she must just be insane. After all, hadn't they just been arguing?

She had been very impressive in that last mission, though. The information they'd been sent to obtain had almost been compromised by an enemy ninja, but at the last second she invaded his mind and proceeded to fool his comrades for a full half hour, in the end giving them more information than they ever would have dreamed of obtaining. They even finished early, which was always a boon in his book.

But Ino's madness would have to be pondered another day, for no sooner had they walked in the village than Shiranui Genma appeared in front of them, looking as if he had some important news to discuss. Shikamaru didn't even bother to ask how the jounin already knew they were back.

"It's good that you're back early," Genma said. "You can be debriefed immediately, and then Godaime-sama wants to talk to you," he looked pointedly at Shikamaru.

"What about?" Ino asked. Always sticking her nose into others' business. How troublesome.

"You'll be informed if and when Hokage-sama decides that's necessary," Genma said casually, though he looked amused. In a way, Shikamaru envied the older ninja. He never seemed to be annoyed by anything.

"Well, let's go, then," Asuma said. "No sense in standing around here talking about it. I was going to get something to eat, so it works for me that we can be debriefed right away."

And thus the three of them went with Genma to the Hokage's tower. The entire time, Shikamaru couldn't shake the feeling that something incredibly troublesome was about to happen to him.

-

"The teams are going to be customized for the mission," Tsunade was saying. "With luck, they will mostly be made up of shinobi accustomed to swing assignments, but I know for a fact that Hyuuga Hinata will be going, and she's only ever been on two swing missions before."

"Have you decided on anyone else yet?" Shikamaru asked. He hadn't been at all thrilled when the Hokage had informed him he was going to be returning to the snow village – it was an incredibly long trip and he wasn't fond of the cold temperatures, either. Still, at least he'd been there before, fairly recently, and had a good idea of what to expect.

"The only team member locked down for your squad so far is Haruno Sakura," Shikamaru told him. "As for Genma's squad, Shizune and Hinata will be with him, and I've yet to find a fourth member to round them off."

"Will two squads be sufficient?" Genma questioned casually.

"From what we know about the village, I think two squads will be enough. I have faith in the talents of the shinobi that will be coming. Besides, we really can't spare any more than that."

"Orochimaru?" Genma asked.

"I wish it was only him," Tsunade smirked ruefully. "I have word from Jiraiya that Akatsuki is on the move again. We're no closer to discerning their goals than we were three years ago, though we're fairly certain they're at least still after Naruto."

Shikamaru had heard the word 'Akatsuki' mentioned before, but had never been expressly told what it meant. He was just toying with the idea of asking about it, when the Hokage cut him off.

"They pose no immediate threat, of course, but we can't let ourselves be caught off-guard nonetheless."

"Is there anything else we should know about this mission?" Shikamaru asked. He was anxious to go home and take a nap, or perhaps go lie on the hill in back of his home and look at the clouds.

"I've told you all that I know. It's supposedly a diplomatic affair, but the other four kage and ninja escorts from each of their villages will also be there, so it's best to tread lightly. Also, with all five kage gathered in one place, it's a prime opportunity for an assassination attempt."

Shikamaru almost balked at that last part. Who would be stupid enough to attack all five kage at once? Even Orochimaru knew his limits. Unless, like the last time, he'd secretly allied with one or more of the other kage behind Konoha's back. Shikamaru scowled; all of a sudden this mission had become twice as troublesome.

"Unless either of you have any more questions, this briefing is over. You're to reconvene here two days from now, where your full teams will be constructed. We will then set out for Yukigakure the following morning."

Shikamaru and Genma both bowed and left the Hokage's office.

-

Tsunade let out a great breath as the two shinobi captains left her office. Usually, they were two of the people she didn't bother to act so formal around, but she was in truth really unnerved about the whole thing. She didn't reveal to them how much she suspected treachery – not on the part of the snow ninja, who seemed all too eager to be on Konoha's good side – but on the part of the other kage. She knew she could trust the Kazekage; he would never betray the leaf, but the other three were on less than friendly terms with her village. Add to that the fact that Konoha had regained its status as the strongest of the five major villages within a year after Orochimaru's attack, and the opening for resentment was clear.

"This could get really ugly," she said to herself. She sat down at her desk and poured herself a drink. Shizune was working in the hospital with Hinata, and Sakura was out training with Naruto and Kakashi for once, so there was no one around to yell at her for it.

-

"I don't see why you have to go there _again_!" Ino complained loudly. Shikamaru just snorted in response. Then two of them and Chouji had met for yakiniku, and Chouji of all people had offered to pay this time. "_You guys and Asuma-sensei treat me more than enough," _he'd said.

"Don't just sluff if off like that!" she yelled indignantly.

"Why are you mad at Shikamaru, Ino?" Chouji asked simply after swallowing another piece of meat and placing three more on the grill in one motion. "It's not like he asks for the missions he gets. Only Naruto can get away with that."

"I'm not mad at _him," _she said firmly. "I'm frustrated that he's taking it so lightly, but I'm mad at the Fifth for sending him there again."

"What's the big deal?" Chouji asked, mouth already full of the three pieces of meat he'd placed on the grill only moments before. He swallowed again before continuing. "It's not like they're dangerous or anything. Last time we didn't know if they would be, but now it seems like they only want to be our ally."

"Well…it's not…its just that…" Ino seemed flustered and had completely lost her momentum. Shikamaru chose this moment to break into the conversation.

"We don't know for sure if that's what they want, though it does look like it," he said. "The only real thing to worry about will be if any of the other kage decide to make a move on Godaime, or if Orochimaru has made a deal with any of them. In either case, it's nothing that the Hokage and two squads couldn't deal with as long as we have the support of the sand and the snow." What he didn't say was what would happen if for whatever reason they _didn't_ have the support of the sand and the snow, which of course had to be included as a possibility. Also, he didn't mention that the entire thing had the potential of being nothing more than a trap, and that Arima hadn't bought his story of chasing Sasuke at all. There was no need to worry his friends with such things.

"Oh, I get it," Chouji grinned merrily. "So Ino's mostly just upset that you'll be gone such a long time."

"What!" the girl in question exclaimed. "I am not!"

"You seemed awfully excited when he got back the last time," Chouji observed, taking another bite of meat.

"That's just because I was glad he was all right," Ino countered quickly. "You can't say you weren't worried about him too."

"No, I guess that's true," Chouji admitted. "But I know Shikamaru can take care of himself. And Neji and Naruto were with him, so there wasn't much to worry about."

Ino huffed in frustration and crossed her arms, saying no more.

"This is why I never wanted to be a chuunin," Shikamaru remarked flatly, taking a bite of meat off the grill.

-

The day of departure had finally come, and Tsunade was surveying the two teams that would be traveling with her. Shiranui Genma, with his ever-present extra long toothpick that was secretly a weapon, stood with his team that consisted of Shizune, Hyuuga Hinata, and Yamashiro Aoba. All of them aside from Hinata were quite accustomed to being assigned to different teams for different missions – "swing" missions, as they were called.

The other team, Nara Shikamaru's, consisted of Sakura, Hyuuga Neji, and Naruto (whom she would have brought anyway even if Sakura _hadn't_ casually suggested he come along). Even though this team was made up entirely of chuunin, they were all highly skilled, and three of them were familiar with the terrain they'd be visiting – something that was very important in any mission like this.

And, of course, there was the large assembly of people who weren't going, but had gathered to see their comrades off. Tsunade shook her head while at the same time chuckling fondly. One of the nicest things about missions like this that weren't the least bit urgent was the pleasant departure that went with it. She turned to speak to Genma and Aoba.

"It looks like you two are the only ones no one will miss," she said wryly.

"The novelty wears off once you get to be old codgers like us," Genma replied casually. "One of the greatest things about still being a kid is that you get to enjoy everything so much more." He looked at the younger shinobi all gathered around talking to each other and a small smile worked its way onto his face.

"Heh. You're too much of a romantic," she teased him. But inwardly she agreed with him.

-

"Take care of yourselves, you guys," Ino was saying. She and Chouji were seeing off Sakura, Shikamaru and Naruto, but Sakura noticed her friend had looked at Shikamaru particularly in saying this.

"Aa, we know already," Shikamaru waved her off.

"Is the ramen stand there really as good as you say?" Chouji asked Naruto. Sakura rolled her eyes. Leave it to those two to turn a farewell into a discussion about ramen.

"Yeah, it is!" Naruto said enthusiastically. "It's not as good as Ichiraku, but the ramen tastes so much better when it's warming you up from the cold weather."

"Do they have any ingredients that Konoha doesn't have?"

"I didn't notice any, but I couldn't really ask that directly, of course…"

Somewhere along the line Sakura's attention drifted away from the conversation and she looked around. Tsunade was speaking with Shizune, Aoba and Genma, and Hinata was talking with Kiba and Shino. Neji was silently observing the latter conversation.

"Be careful, Hinata," she heard Kiba say. "We know you can take care of yourself, but with all these different ninja from different countries, things could get sour really fast."

"We anticipate your safe return," Shino said.

"I think it's sweet how protective those two are of her." Sakura jumped. She hadn't even been aware Ino was right behind her, apparently listening to the same exchange she was. She just smiled and nodded in agreement.

"She's like their little sister that they look out for," Ino went on. "It's so cute."

"I think they're telling Neji-san in no uncertain terms that he's to look out for her," Sakura said, giggling a little; Kiba and Shino now appeared to be having a somewhat serious conversation with the Hyuuga prodigy.

"If it was me, I think I'd be annoyed," Ino said candidly. "But I think Hinata really likes the attention, even if she acts embarrassed about it."

"Oy, eavesdropping is impolite," came Shikamaru's voice from behind them. Ino turned to face him without a hint of shame on her face. Sakura was impressed, as she'd failed to hide her own blush at being caught.

"Oh? Then what were you doing just now?" Ino asked her teammate triumphantly.

"You're standing two feet from us," Shikamaru countered lazily. "We can't help but hear your obnoxiously loud voices."

"He's got you on that one, Ino," Chouji said, laughing. Sakura couldn't help but laugh herself as Ino's eye twitched and her jaw clenched, even though she'd been insulted as well.

"All right everyone, we've stalled long enough; it's time to go!" Tsunade's voice boomed over the gathering of people and everyone who was about to leave quickly checked all their equipment to make sure it was properly attached to their bodies before setting out.

Ino's ire had instantly evaporated at Tsunade's announcement and she became serious again.

"I don't have to tell you again that you have to come back," she said firmly to Shikamaru.

"Aa," was his response.

Then Ino did something that Sakura never would have anticipated. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Shikamaru in a tight hug, and then leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.

"We'll be here when you get back," she said, and slowly released him.

"Aa."

Sakura started wide-eyed at what she had just witnessed. Naruto also seemed dumbstruck. Chouji just stood there with a self-satisfied grin on his face, as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place.

"Hurry up, you two!"

Shikamaru's voice yelling at them snapped Naruto and Sakura back to the present and with a final wave over their shoulders they hurried to catch up to their comrades through the gate that was already closing.

- - - - - -

I think that's it for this one. I was going to go into details concerning the trip to Yukigakure, but I don't think it's necessary. I'll gloss over it a bit in the next chapter.

Again, big thanks to my prereader, SJR, who never hesitates to suggest a semi-colon, even when using one would be inappropriate or grammatically incorrect.

Also, Koorikage is nearing completion. About two more chapters after this and it's done, and then the sequel begins. And that's where things _really_ get interesting. I'm really looking forward to writing it. I'm actually impatient about it, and I have to remind myself that this one isn't done yet, and that I can't rush through it to get to the next part or it'll be nothing but crap. P

Anyway, that's about it for my ramblings this time. One last thing, though. I've never been a whore for attention or anything, but it would be nice to know if people are reading this and what they think of it. I really enjoy writing it, but if no one's reading it then I have about a half dozen other projects I could be working on instead. So be a pal and leave a review, eh?


	8. Chapter 7: The Shadows

Now that's more like it. Ask and you shall receive, it would seem. Thank you to all those who reviewed, and those who plan to after this chapter. Anyhoo, here we go once again with lucky chapter number seven. I don't know exactly why it's lucky, but it just is. Run with me on this.

This is another slow-paced chapter, but it focuses more on plot development rather than character development like the last one. For those of you who noticed, nothing really actually _happened_ in the last chapter, and that's good. That's the way it was supposed to be.

I'll do my best to make sure this isn't just a boring recount of events, and that it's actually interesting to read. Straight plot advancement has always been my greatest weakness, since I tend to get too bland and objective. One of the reasons I've been fleshing out the characters is so I'll have some room to play on this one. (The other reason being that non-fleshed-out characters are boring and stupid.)

There's some foreshadowing in this one, but I won't tell you where or what it has to do with. If anyone actually guesses it, I'll be extremely surprised. I just felt like telling you so you'll go insane trying to figure out what it is.

Right then. Enough of that. Let's get cracking, shall we?

Chapter 7 – The Shadows

"I don't imagine Hyuuga Hiashi was too pleased about his heir being taken on a mission like this so far from the village," Genma said to Tsunade shortly after they left. The Hokage turned to look at him, and then looked back to where the girl in question was following them along with Aoba and Shizune, oblivious to their conversation.

"You're absolutely right, he wasn't pleased," she said. "But there's not much he can do about it. Sandaime may have pandered to the Hyuuga clan's wishes of not being sent far off in order to protect their byakugan, but I won't. They may or may not be the strongest clan in the village, but what use are they if we can't send them anywhere?"

"It's always been the branch family members that get sent away on missions, since their byakugan is sealed up when they die. It's one more thing they resent the head family for."

"I won't deny that the clan has its internal problems," Tsunade said. "But I'm not going to baby them. They'll get the same treatment and the same assignments as everyone else."

"Hn." Genma grinned slightly.

"At least Hiashi's lightened up a bit these past couple of years," she sighed, mostly to herself. "He's even been training his nephew in techniques the head family has always kept to itself."

"There's only one person to thank for that," Genma remarked casually. The two of them looked back again to the other squad that was bringing up the rear behind them, where Naruto was chatting excitedly with Sakura as if they were on a trip to a festival as opposed to a foreign ninja village.

"He really is an incredible kid," Tsunade mused, then turned her focus back to where she was going. Casually walking down the road in such a big group always made her uneasy. Genma once again only hummed in reply.

- - -

"So what was that kiss all about, Shikamaru?" Naruto asked that night when they stopped to rest. "Have you and Ino been getting friendly?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Eh? Ino-san kissed you, Shikamaru-kun?" Hinata asked. Genma and Aoba were on watch, and Shizune was having a discussion with Tsunade, so she'd come over to talk with the other chuunin.

"Oh, enough already," Shikamaru said, clearly annoyed – not that that was unusual.

"She just gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek, Hinata," Sakura explained. "Naruto's just being annoying." She didn't admit out loud that she had been shocked as well, though she was sure everyone knew she'd been.

"How come I never get a hug and a kiss when I leave on long, potentially dangerous missions, Sakura-chan?" Naruto pouted.

"Feh. Like anyone would ever do that for you," she teased, sticking out her tongue.

"Sakura-san, that's not very nice…" Hinata interjected.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Hinata," Naruto waved her off with a smile. "I know how Sakura-chan _really_ feels about me." He waggled his eyebrows again.

"What!" The pink-haired girl in question exclaimed in indignation. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Anou…Sakura-san…" Hinata tried to calm her friend down and alert her to the fact that Naruto was doing his best to cover what surely would have been raucous laughter.

"Are you guys going to be acting like this for the whole mission?" Shikamaru asked irritably.

"Maybe," Naruto replied smugly. "What would you do about it?"

Shikamaru just rolled his eyes and let out a deep sigh. Neji, who was leaning against a tree trunk and hadn't said a word since they'd stopped moving, could be heard expressing a similar exasperation.

"Ah, lighten up, Shikamaru," Naruto said, slapping his friend on the back. "A ninja should know how to enjoy a break when he gets it, right?"

"We're hardly on a break, brat," Tsunade called over. "We're on a very important mission, in case you've forgotten."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Naruto said, waving her off as well. "But we're not in any danger right now, and we're not going anywhere until tomorrow morning. That's close enough."

Tsunade's eye twitched, and Sakura was sure she heard her new mentor growl. She laughed nervously. However the Hokage did not bother arguing with Naruto further; perhaps she saw it would be futile.

"Don't make her angry like that, idiot!" she hissed at her teammate under her breath.

"Ah, she'll get over it," Naruto said easily, placing his hands behind his head and leaning back against a tree. "Tsunade-baba's really a big softie, all bark and no bite. Unless you're someone like Orochimaru or something."

The ease with which he said this shocked Sakura. It was as if Naruto and the Hokage were old friends since childhood or something. She knew they had a little bit of history, but apparently she didn't know how much.

"Naruto's probably the only one who doesn't have to be afraid of the Fifth," Shikamaru drawled lazily. "She'll yell at him, but he just yells right back and she never really does anything to him."

"Why is that, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Ah, we got through all our issues years ago, back when Ero-sennin and I went to track her down," the blonde said with a wide grin. "I give her a hard time, but I like her." He absently fingered the necklace he was wearing under his coat. "Don't tell her I said that, though," he added, snickering.

"What happened on that trip, Naruto?" Sakura asked. "You never really told me anything about it, except that you met Orochimaru."

"A lot of stuff," Naruto answered seriously. "I learned the Rasengan, for one. That's when Tsunade-baba and I first met. I was having trouble with the final stage of it. She bet me I couldn't master it in a week, and when I did, she gave me this necklace and agreed to become Hokage." He pulled said necklace out from under his coat and showed it to them. It was a beautiful green gem that Sakura could not name.

"Wow," Sakura said, amazed. Not at the fact that he'd mastered such a difficult technique in a week, but that he'd managed to earn _the_ Tsunade's respect so completely so quickly. There had to be more to it.

"Hokage-sama gave you that?" Hinata asked, clearly as amazed as Sakura was.

"Mm-hmm," Naruto nodded proudly. "She told me to 'become a good man.' I never take it off."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw her teacher turn back to her own conversation, as if her attention had been somewhere else briefly. Upon closer inspection, she saw that Tsunade was sporting a very contented smile.

-

"We're coming up on the Snow village!" Genma announced. It had only taken six and a half days – much less than expected – for them to arrive. It turned out that most of them grew weary of just strolling down the road, so the pace had been picked up considerably. And of course they'd taken to the trees out in open territory once they'd appeared again. All of this meant they were early. Hopefully the snow wouldn't mind.

"Let's go back down to the road, then," Tsunade said. "If anyone was going to ambush us, they wouldn't do it this close to a shinobi village, unless it's the snow themselves. We're here as dignitaries, so we might as well look like it."

A chorus of "hai" came next and nine shinobi moved like spurts of wind out of the trees and onto the only road into Yukigakure.

"You three recognize the terrain?" Tsunade asked, obviously addressing Naruto, Shikamaru and Neji.

"Yeah, it all looks pretty much the way it should," Shikamaru answered.

"I am detecting nothing out of the ordinary," Neji stated, Byakugan activated.

"Nor am I," Hinata rang out seconds later, her Byakugan also activated.

"Good. Proceed as planned, then."

The nine of them walked up the path in procession as if no one important was within their ranks. Tsunade was dressed in her normal attire and not the formal clothes of her office, so anyone observing would not immediately know who the highest profile target was, though it would be easy enough to ascertain simply through her reputation.

"Halt!" one of the sentries called out when the walked up to the gate. Shikamaru did not recognize him as one of the sentries from their last visit. "State your business."

"We are ambassadors of the leaf here on official invitation," Genma declared coolly.

"Prove it," the guard said, even though they were all wearing leaf hitai-ate. Genma produced the invitation from his vest, and then the visitation visas that Neji's team had brought back with them.

"This all seems in order," the guard said. Then he paused before looking back up and speaking again. "You're two days early."

"The trip was faster than we thought," Genma explained. "We didn't want to be late."

"I suppose," the guard said. "You are welcome in our village, but will be assigned a guard detail, simply for precaution."

"Understood," Genma said.

"Please wait here," the guard said, leading them inside the gate so it could be closed again. "Your guards will arrive shortly." Genma nodded politely and the sentry went back to his post.

"Security's tight," Aoba noted. "On par with the chuunin exams."

"It's to be expected," Genma replied. "After all, the leaders of the five great shinobi countries will be here."

Only a few moments later, two figures dropped out of the sky and landed on the path in front of them, which was particularly impressive since no visible message had been sent. They were familiar faces.

"You two?" Naruto asked abruptly. Standing before the leaf ninja were the Sabu twins with the ninja-to who had been guarding Arima's office the last time they'd been here.

"We requested the assignment specifically," the girl said, smiling. "Please, allow me to introduce my brother, Sabu Saburo, and I am Sabu Yukiko." She bowed, though her brother only nodded slightly when his name was spoken. The leaf ninja bowed in return.

"Another will be joining us later for your guard detail," Yukiko explained. "Unfortunately, he has yet to return from his latest mission. We did not expect you for two more days, though it is nice that you are here. As you no doubt must have guessed, you are the first to arrive." She didn't stop smiling once through her whole speech, and Shikamaru idly wondered how long she'd rehearsed it. Obviously some of it had been improvised, such as the part about them being early. If she weren't a ninja, this girl would make a spectacular hostess.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Tsunade said cordially. It was strange to see her acting and speaking so formal, and through the corner of his eye Shikamaru saw Naruto fighting back his laughter.

"This way, please," Yukiko said, gesturing toward the center of the village. She and her brother – who had yet to say a word – began to lead them into the village.

The village had a very inviting atmosphere to it. The buildings were all short – no higher than two stories – but were all intricately designed and constructed. There were no signs of any of the hastily built apartments that filled certain sections of Konoha and other villages, designed to be mass produced and therefore all but identical.

The architecture and materials used, in conjunction with the snowy surroundings and numerous icicles, gave the village the feel of a winter resort town. The streets were all cobblestone, and except for the main road that led out of town, none were any wider than the width of six people walking abreast.

In the center of town, buildings became slightly taller, up to five stories in some places. And then of course there was the administration tower right in the center, which loomed over everything in a majestic display of focus and authority. It was clearly the nexus of the whole village, and looked to be made from a combination of wood, stone and ice. One couldn't help but feel a sense of awe in gazing upon it.

Yukiko and Saburo led them to a tall (relatively speaking) building across the street from the administration tower on the north side – the main gate was on the southern end of town.

"You'll be staying here," Yukiko informed them, "on the fifth floor. We hope the accommodations are to your liking."

They were led up five flights of stairs and down a hallway, where on the left side Saburo opened a door for them and allowed them to enter. They found a large room with a kotatsu and three futon, connected via shoji to similar rooms on either side. A window with shades overlooked the village below.

"My sister and I will be staying across the hall, should you require anything," Saburo declared formally. He possessed neither the charming presence nor the infectious smile of his twin. He didn't seem cold, just…neutral.

"Your third guard will want to meet you when he returns," Yukiko said, "although he already knows three of you very well." She smiled warmly, particularly at Naruto, which clearly agitated Sakura and made Hinata fidget, and then at Neji, which amused Shikamaru greatly.

"Is it Musuka?" Naruto asked excitedly.

Yukiko grinned even more brightly at him. "How did you guess?"

Naruto let out a whoop of delight.

"He's looking forward to seeing you all again," Saburo said. "Especially you, Naruto-kun." He offered the first taste of a real smile since he'd appeared to them on the street. But Shikamaru couldn't recall ever introducing his team to the twins, let alone being on a first name basis with them. Naruto didn't seem to mind.

"We'll leave now, and let you get settled in," Yukiko said. "Remember, if there's anything you need, we're across the hall. And you have a couple of days before the other parties arrive, so if you wish to have a look around our village, don't hesitate to ask." She bowed to them, as did her brother, and they left the room.

"They certainly seem hospitable," Hinata said after the twins had left.

"They're falling all over themselves to accommodate us," Tsunade said wryly. "It looks like that leader of theirs was serious about an alliance after all. Or they could be trying to set us off-guard for a trap."

"Either way, we have some time before the festival starts," Shizune said. "We should explore the village some. It would be a nice way to relax, and we can also familiarize ourselves with the layout."

"Those guards are going to want to stick to us like glue," Aoba said. "That means we'll have to travel in groups."

"Well someone come with me, then," Naruto said. "I need to go make friends with that ramen guy all over again."

-

Neji was uneasy. The situation had not improved in the day they'd spent in the snow village; in fact, it seemed to be getting worse. He had a feeling it wouldn't be much longer before things came to a head. It would make sense to make a move before the other diplomats arrived, and that's what he was expecting. The only problem was, he had no idea how to counter such a move and was running increasingly short on time to work something out.

He couldn't count on Naruto or Shikamaru for help; they had both gone off with Musuka earlier that morning to inspect the security of the festival grounds where the events would be taking place in just two days' time (none of the leaf ninja as yet had any idea what these events were going to be). Hokage-sama and Shizune were in a meeting of some sort with the snow village leader, and Genma and Aoba had gone off with Sabu Saburo to inspect the village's perimeter security. The snow ninja didn't seem to mind their visitors wanting to double-check the security measures they'd placed.

That left Neji with Hinata-sama and Haruno Sakura back at their "temporary base of operations" with Sabu Yukiko. Neji had nothing but respect for both of his leaf companions, but he couldn't deny that they wouldn't be much help in this situation. Steeling himself, Neji came to a decision.

"How are the security measures coming?" he asked Sakura. The three of them had been rigging the room for most of the morning.

"They're almost finished," the young woman with pink hair replied. "I'm glad, too. As soon as Naruto and Shikamaru get back, I want to get out of this room for a bit."

Hinata-sama nodded her agreement, even if she'd never voice it. Neji managed a small smile; he wouldn't mind getting out of the room himself. Then he remembered the seriousness of the situation and got back to business.

"I'm going to go speak with our escort for a moment," he announced, and strode across the room to the door. Neither girl commented on this and returned to their security preparations.

Neji entered the hall and saw Sabu Yukiko standing guard at the opposite door just like she was supposed to. She smiled when she saw him; he didn't think she'd be smiling after he finished speaking to her. He decided he'd best be as abrupt as possible. He walked over to her and got straight to the point.

"I'm not interested," he said plainly, in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Excuse me?" she asked politely, a slightly puzzled expression on her face.

"I am not interested, nor do I foresee myself becoming interested anytime soon, so you would be best to direct your attentions elsewhere."

She looked at him oddly for a moment, and then giggled slightly. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," she said simply, still smiling.

"I hope you do not expect me to believe that," he said rather condescendingly. "Do you think I have not seen you watching me? That I have not noticed that you always make sure to assign yourself to whatever detail I happen to be in? That you never stop smiling as long as you think I can see you? That you stand in such a way that your chest is emphasized as much as possible in a ridiculous attempt to ensnare my attention?" He finished his accusations with a nasty sneer, but for some strange reason, she was not fazed at all. In fact, if anything, her smile was even bigger than it had been before.

"Well, it's working, isn't it?" she asked cheerily.

"What?" Neji was taken aback. That was not the reaction he'd been expecting. She was supposed to recoil in shame and back off, not keep going. Had he not been intimidating enough?

"Well obviously I _have_ captured your attention, or we wouldn't be having this conversation," she explained in the manner of someone spelling something out for a young child.

"That…" Neji's retort died in his throat and he froze up. That infuriating smile was _still_ not shrinking.

"So," she continued on, "if, after the festival, you're still 'not interested,' come and talk to me before you leave, all right?" She winked at him. "But you should get back now. I can hardly concentrate on my mission while being distracted by a dashing leaf ninja, can I?"

For the first time in his entire life, Neji was left completely dumbstruck. He had no idea what on earth had just happened, or how she had turned the conversation around on him like that. She was obviously still operating under the outlandish delusion that there was some possibility between them, and anything he said to dissuade her only seemed to intensify the problem.

He managed to work his face into a scowl before he turned and left, so as to prevent the impression that she had "dismissed" him, which would of course be absurd. But as he opened the door back into the Konoha ninja suite, he could have sworn he heard her making some sort of giggling noise.

How nauseating.

-

That evening, they heard that the sand delegation had arrived and would be staying on the second floor. Shizune convinced Tsunade that she should go down to greet them, and so as her current apprentice, Sakura went along. Naruto also accompanied them, for no real discernable reason. Maybe it had something to do with his relationship with the Hokage. It was no secret that her friend and teammate was one of the only shinobi in the entire village who could get away with shouting at her sensei, or be picky about the missions he took on. However, except for the little bit he explained on the trip to Yukigakure, Sakura still had no idea why this was.

She wasn't complaining, though. Truth be told, she was just a little bit nervous about meeting with a foreign delegation like this, even if it was the sand. Having Naruto there would definitely make her feel better about it. She'd never tell him any of this, of course. Admitting such a thing would be quite contrary to her chosen ninja way.

The guard detail were three snow ninja whom Sakura had never met, but they accompanied the three leaf nin into the suite. Inside were only three people: the Kazekage, and his (her?) two escorts. The escorts were two people Sakura knew well.

"Temari! Kankuro!" Naruto exclaimed upon seeing their old acquaintances. Tsunade's eye twitched at the immediate loss of formality, but the sand siblings only smirked.

"Good to see you, brat," Kankuro remarked. Behind him, Kazekage slowly stood. Even without looking at the object on his back, Sakura did not have to think hard to discern who it was.

"I am glad to find you well, Uzumaki Naruto," Kazekage said. "And you, Hokage-sama." He offered a small bow.

"Likewise, Kazekage-dono," she offered a small bow in return. Then she removed her hat (which was a relief to Sakura, who never did get used to seeing her sensei in the ceremonial robes of her office), and said, "We might as well drop the formality, as my idiot protégé has already done it in."

"As you wish," Kazekage replied, and removed his hat as well.

"Gaara!" Naruto exclaimed with the same enthusiasm as before. "It's good to see you!"

Gaara gave – if it was even possible for him to do so – the smallest hint of a smile.

"When did they appoint you as the fifth Kazekage?" Tsunade asked conversationally.

"The decision was made last year," Gaara answered in his usual monotone, though almost all traces of his old coldness were gone. "The village felt that not only would my strength be an asset in the position, but it would be the best way to control me as well."

"Hmph," snorted Naruto. "That's a lousy reason to make someone a kage," he said with contempt. "Deep down they did it because they know you're stronger than all of them."

Gaara put on his small smile again, and Sakura wondered if he'd been consciously making an effort to do it more often.

"At the time, our village had been two years without a Kazekage, and order was slowly slipping away," the medium of the Shukaku explained. "However, the reason I accepted the position was something else entirely."

"What was that?" Naruto asked, evidently genuinely interested. Sakura was curious, too.

"It was because of you, Uzumaki Naruto," the young kage spoke simply. "The strength you demonstrated the day we fought caused me to understand that my philosophy was flawed, and that it was you who was correct. I now fight in the hopes that I may protect those important to me as you do. As Kazekage I have been able to expand those important to me to include my entire village."

"R…really?" Naruto asked. His eyes were the slightest bit watery, and if Sakura were completely honest with herself, she found the whole thing very moving as well.

"Indeed. I owe you my thanks, Uzumaki Naruto."

"So do we," Kankurou added in his trademark drawl. "He never used to talk this much. He actually seems like a normal guy now." Sakura was sure that Kankurou would not have dared make such a comment only a few years ago.

The rest of the evening was spent reminiscing with the sand siblings. Sakura asked if only sending two guards was enough, but Temari assured her that between the three of them, no one would be touching the delegation from the sand. When they returned in the wee hours of the morning, it was to find Musuka standing guard across the hall, and everyone asleep save Genma inside their suite.

-

The next day, the delegations from Iwagakure, Kirigakure and Kumogakure arrived. The stone and the cloud ninja both brought along two squads as Konoha had done to escort their respective kage, but the Mizukage had an astounding three squads – twelve ninja – accompanying him. Either they'd had a threat made against them recently and weren't taking any chances, or were just being distrustful and paranoid. Or perhaps the only ninja they could spare for the mission were of lower skill level so they used numbers to compensate. The one among them who was clearly the highest ranking under Mizukage wore a large haori, hakama and had an enormous nodachi strapped across his back. The mist nin were housed on the fourth floor, the stone nin the third, and the cloud nin on the ground floor. Genma seemed to find this last part amusing, though no one other than Sakura, Neji and Shikamaru even got the joke, and they didn't think it was all that funny.

Cordial greetings were exchanged, and every time a kage arrived, all the others who were already there had to go and meet them. It was way too much hassle and ceremony as far as Naruto was concerned.

"What are we, businessmen or ninja?" he bellowed after the fourth and last of these meetings had been made and they were leaving the Tsuchikage's quarters. "What's with all the schmoozing and sweet-talking, anyway?"

"It's the easiest way to maintain peace," Shizune explained to him patiently. "You don't make friends by being rude. Proper etiquette is in place to ensure no one is offended and thus no unnecessary conflicts are initiated."

"And on top of that," Genma added in an undertone, "if you're planning a surprise attack on another country, there's no better way to catch them off-guard than by being polite to them."

"It's all a big waste of time, if you ask me," Naruto continued unrelentingly. "No one ever says what they mean in conversations like that. And even the people you're talking to know you don't really mean it. It's just a lot of brownnosing."

"Now you're getting it," Tsunade said with a smirk. "You may have what it takes to be Hokage after all." Shizune, Genma and Sakura laughed; Naruto didn't see what was so funny.

"Hokage-sama," came a voice. Aoba had come out to meet them in the hallway. "We've received a message from the snow. The festival will begin tonight, but the presence of the five kage will not be required until sunset tomorrow. They request you to arrive one hour before that time to prepare. Otherwise, we are free to do as we wish until then."

"Excellent," Tsunade smiled. "I saw a nice-looking pachinko hall just down the street yesterday." And she turned and walked away with Shizune running and calling after her.

"Someone else should go with her," Genma said, and Naruto saw Sabu Saburo heading after her already. He didn't have anything else to do, so he decided to volunteer.

"I'll go," he said.

"I'll go too," Sakura piped up beside him.

"All right, but don't bother her unless it's an emergency," Genma warned. "You know how she gets." Naruto grinned widely.

"Make sure to tell that Saburo guy that as well," Aoba added. Naruto saluted and Sakura gave a quick bow, and they were off.

-

"She knows we're following her, you know," Sakura said to Naruto a while later as they tailed their charge through the streets of Yukigakure.

"Yeah, I know," he answered simply.

"Then why are we worried so much about stealth?" she asked, for they'd been sneaking along after her as though she were an unwitting informant in a top secret covert operation.

"So nobody else knows that we are," Naruto said.

"Oh, right," she said, blushing. She suddenly seemed a bit flustered for some reason, and Naruto suddenly realized this was usually something Sakura just knew, being the by-the-book ninja that she was. In a rare stroke of brilliance that was sure to not be repeated for some time, he said exactly the right thing.

"That Saburo guy reminded me. I wasn't even thinking about it." He gave his trademark grin and scratched the back of his head, and it had the desired effect; Sakura felt less like an idiot for her lapse, though she alone knew the reason for that lapse and was still angry at herself for it.

The two of them had been following Tsunade for a good part of the day, and Saburo was not far off from them. They knew this was so he could keep an eye on them as well, though why he didn't just stay with them was a mystery. Neither Sakura nor Naruto was complaining, however, as the stoic twin could be a bit unsettling at times, and the two of them hadn't had much time to spend together of late, so they were enjoying it as best they could.

"I wish she'd go to some place besides the gambling halls," Sakura bemoaned. "I'd really like to see more of the city."

"After Obaba's done with whatever they want her to do at that festival, we'll have some time off finally and I'll take you around," Naruto offered. "I know the place pretty well by now."

Sakura took a second to gaze at Naruto before smiling and saying "Thank you, Naruto," perhaps a little quieter than she usually would have. Naruto didn't seem to notice.

"I'll show you the house Shikamaru and I plotted in, and there's a great ramen stand that's almost as good as Ichiraku!" he told her excitedly. Sakura merely rolled her eyes, but kept smiling.

"Are you two on a date, or are you trailing your Hokage?" came an annoyed-sounding voice from behind them. They whirled around to see Sabu Saburo looking at them with narrowed eyes and his arms crossed.

Sakura seemed tongue-tied, but Naruto, apparently on his game this afternoon, shot back with atypical wit, "Can't it be both?"

Of the two reactions Naruto expected, only Saburo delivered. He became even more irritated than he already was, and his left eyebrow began twitching. Sakura, on the other hand, was still struck dumb, her eyes a little wider than normal. Why she didn't yell and hit him, he couldn't fathom, but he needed to move quickly in order to make his getaway from the irate snow ninja in front of him.

"There she goes, on the move again! Let's go, Sakura-chan!" he jumped to a nearby rooftop.

"R-right." She followed him, leaving Saburo to curse after them.

For the rest of the afternoon, Sakura didn't talk much, but it didn't seem to dampen Naruto's spirits any. He kept telling her about interesting things he'd seen or people he'd met in his two and a half week stay in the snow village, to which she would respond with verbal yet uncharacteristically inarticulate replies. By the time they returned to prepare for the next evening's events, she was no longer even looking at him and sped off to join Hinata and Shizune almost immediately. Naruto would have found this most odd had he stopped to think about it, but as it was his mind was too preoccupied with the festival and spending an evening with Sakura off-duty. He wasn't sure which he was looking forward to the most.

-

The next day proved nowhere near as fun as a festival should be. All the ninja from the five invited countries were surveying the stage for the evening's whatever and inspecting security all over town. Leave it to a group of ninja to not trust anybody on anything.

Naruto and Shikamaru spent most of the day with Musuka, casing the town for anything at all that didn't look like it belonged. Sakura and Shizune were stuck with Tsunade, playing little more than the roles of handmaidens. Shizune was used to this by now, but it grated on Sakura's nerves.

Genma and Aoba were making a point of contacting every single one of the foreign ninja that they could and gathering as much information on each of them as possible. One can never be too prepared. Lastly, Hinata and Neji were inspecting every inch of the stage and the surrounding area for traps with their Byakugan. Yukiko was with them, much to Neji's endless aggravation. In addition to her ridiculous infatuation with him, her natural cheerfulness mixed perfectly with Hinata's natural gentleness and the two girls got on very well. Neji had never seen his cousin so talkative and sociable, and in all honesty hoped he never would again.

"So tell me more about Naruto-kun," Yukiko was saying as they walked along the front of the stage. How Hinata could carry on such a lively conversation and still pay attention to what she was supposed to be doing was a mystery. "Musuka was really impressed by him for some reason, but he never really explained why."

"Naruto-kun is…extraordinary," Hinata said after slight hesitation. "He has a way about him that inspires others to do well, and he never seems to fail at anything he says he's going to do."

"Really? That does sound impressive," Yukiko did indeed sound intrigued. "So what, is he some kind of genius ninja descended from greatness?"

At this, Hinata actually giggled. Neji himself even managed a small smirk of amusement.

"Oh no," Hinata said, coming down off her laughter. "Naruto-kun wasn't a very good student at all. In fact, he was last in our class at the academy."

"Then how…" Yukiko appeared understandably confused. It was at this point that Neji remembered he was supposed to be searching for traps and not monitoring this annoying conversation. He got back to work, but still they talked and he couldn't help but hear.

"Naruto-kun's greatest strength is his will," Hinata explained with a tone of greatest admiration. "He never gives up no matter what, and never stops at anything he tries until he succeeds. And he never takes back his words; if Naruto-kun says he's going to do something, then he'll do it."

"That does sound like the kind of guy Musuka would like," Yukiko said. "Is that how he got so good, then? Just lots of work?"

"Oh yes. And he makes others want to work hard as well. I was never a very good ninja, and always felt bad about myself when I was younger. But one time in an examination match, Naruto-kun cheered for me and I felt like I could become stronger. That I could succeed if I tried. It's a wonderful feeling."

"It sounds like you have a thing for him," Yukiko teased. Hinata's shyness finally made an appearance.

"Well…I mean…it's not that…I like Naruto-kun very much, but…what I mean is…"

"Relax, Hinata-san," Yukiko finally said. "I was just teasing you. He sounds like he'd be really hard not to like. We could use a guy like that around here, you know. I can think of a couple of people who could use some motivation."

"Hn," Hinata smiled and nodded. "Naruto-kun can inspire anyone. Even Neji-niisan fought him once and – "

"We need to check around the back now," Neji interrupted. He began to lead them around the stage, but his all-seeing eyes caught the snow kunoichi giving him a knowing look, and saw that she was determined to hear the rest of this story later. Neji's right eyebrow twitched involuntarily.

-

"Ah, finally, finally!" Naruto was saying as they stood in an area that could best be described as "backstage". "They've been talking about this thing since we got here and we still don't even know what it's supposed to be! I can't wait for it to just be over with."

"Aa," Shikamaru agreed. "This whole trip has been much too troublesome."

"I have a bad feeling all of a sudden," Aoba said from where he was leaning against the wall.

"What is it?" Genma asked him.

"I don't know," the other replied. "It's just a gut feeling that something isn't right."

"Then something probably isn't," Genma determined. "We should go investigate."

"Is that a good idea?" Aoba asked. "Aside from Shizune-san, we're the only jounin on this mission."

"They'll be fine, don't worry about it," Genma assured him. "And if the worst happens, don't forget that Hokage-sama is here."

"That's what I'm worried about," Aoba said quietly. Nevertheless, he and Genma leapt off to check things out.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked no one in particular.

"You can never be too careful," Sakura said. Shikamaru said nothing, but his eyebrows were furrowed in thought.

The rest of their group was scattered about. Hinata was standing farther toward the back of the wing with Yukiko, and Neji was standing right next to the entrance to the stage with Saburo and Musuka. And off to the side, they could see Tsunade and Shizune arguing about something. Naruto and Sakura rolled their eyes.

All of a sudden, a snow chuunin they'd never seen before appeared in the middle of their troupe and asked for their attention.

"Ahem. The ceremony will be commencing in approximately two minutes. At this time we would request all kage to head on to the stage. All escort ninja please remain behind the scenes."

"We can't go out there?" Naruto blurted. "What's the point of having escorts, then?"

"The stage is small enough that you will be able to reach your kage should anything happen," the chuunin said plainly. Naruto growled, but didn't say anything more. Tsunade managed to escape from Shizune and gave them all a grin as she walked out onto the stage where the other kage were gathering. The snow chuunin disappeared.

At this point, all the Konoha ninja had gathered as close to the stage as they could get without entering in order to see what was going on. They could see other groups of ninja at other points backstage doing the same. The five kage were all sitting in large chairs that had been provided for them with their village seals on them. At the front of the stage and to the left of all of them there was a podium, and a snow ninja was currently speaking.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he was saying, "tonight is the night we've been waiting for a long time." He paused a moment while people watching cheered. "Our village has grown a great deal, to the point where we have doubled our strength in the last fifteen years." Again, a pause for cheers. "Tonight we have invited the five kage of the five great shinobi nations to witness an event which we as the citizens of Yukigakure will remember for generations." The crowd cheered again.

"Geez, they're really excited about this, aren't they?" Naruto commented.

"Shhh!" Sakura chided him.

"Every once in a while," the snow ninja went on, "A genius is born whose talent and skill is unmatched by anyone in his generation. In Yukigakure we are fortunate enough to be a home for several of these exceptional shinobi, but there is one whose strength is on a level still higher. It is due in large part to his contributions and later his leadership that our village has grown to what it is today." Here he took the longest pause yet, and even so people were still cheering when he started talking again. "And therefore, we gather here to honor our greatest leader, and the pride of our village, Arima Shuichi-sama!"

"He's really laying it on thick," Neji said as Arima entered from behind the podium.

"I can't believe it," Shikamaru said, sweatdropping. "They're really going to do it. I didn't think they had the ego."

"Do what, Shikamaru-san?" Sakura asked.

"Wait and see," he said, inclining his head back out at the podium.

"It seemed only right to perform this ceremony in the presence of the five kage," the speaker explained. "For as a show of our strength, we now declare that our leader, Arima-sama, and all of his successors from this day forth, will be known by the title of "Koorikage." The reaction from the crowd was immediate. An eruption of shouts and applause blasted from every direction. The reactions of the delegates were uproarious too, though perhaps for a different reason. Konoha's ninja were no exception.

"Koorikage!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Can…can they do that?" Sakura asked. Shikamaru sweatdropped again.

"It would seem we were brought here to witness an ego trip," Neji observed.

"Hey, don't say that," Yukiko said from next to them. Six heads swung to the left. They'd been so engrossed that they hadn't even realized she and her brother were standing there. Not a good thing. "Arima-sama really is a great leader, and an incredible shinobi," she said. "The reason you were all brought here was so that it could be official. We want the other kage to recognize him as one of them."

"What if they don't?" Sakura asked.

"Only one of them need do so," Saburo explained. They all looked back out on stage again, where the five kage were doing their best to cover up their own shock at this revelation. Naruto didn't want to say anything, but he wasn't so sure even one of them would go for this. He would, of course, if he were Hokage. The snow village really was strong, and Arima really was a great ninja. Why shouldn't he get to be a kage? Just because he wasn't born in one of the five greater countries? That certainly wasn't fair.

"We now turn to the five kage gathered here," the speaker said once the noise had died down. "As we wish to be as diplomatic as possible, we ask that you recognize Arima-sama and his new title in order for it to be official. Will any of you do so?"

There was a brief moment of tension when it didn't look like any of them were going to do anything, and then, to everyone's great surprise, Gaara stood up.

"I, Godaime Kazekage of the Sand, will recognize Arima Shuichi as the Shodaime Koorikage of the Snow," he declared.

"All right, Gaara!" Naruto shouted. Sakura told him to shut up, but she needn't have bothered. There was too much muttering going on for anyone to have heard him.

Now there was a break once again in which Gaara stood alone and the other kage were looking at him, and back and forth amongst themselves. What was going to happen now? Would one be enough, like Saburo had claimed?

"I, Godaime Hokage of the Leaf, will recognize the Shodaime Koorikage of the Snow," Tsunade said, and she too stood. Now, instead of mutterings, the deafening cheers had returned. Yukiko was smiling, and even her twin looked like he had a grin on his face. It was two kage up so far. The other three still seemed to be considering the situation, until the Raikage stood up as well. Although it looked as if he was doing it somewhat reluctantly.

"The Rokudaime Raikage of the Cloud also acknowledges the Shodaime Koorikage," he stated, though the tone of his voice clearly gave the message that he wasn't happy about it. The Tsuchikage stood a few moments later, and at last only the Mizukage remained. Over a minute passed, and it looked like he was going to hold out, until he too resignedly stood, though he only nodded curtly and said nothing.

The announcer was starting to speak again, when without warning, Genma and Aoba returned, out of breath and looking quite harried.

"What is it?" Neji asked quickly.

"We have to get the Hokage out of here now!" Aoba declared. That snapped them all to attention.

"What? Why?" Shizune was shocked.

"The Sound are here!" Aoba said.

And then the stage exploded.

-

Good lord. Well, it took a while, but it's finally finished. I started on this almost immediately after the last one went up, as you can probably tell from the opening comments up there. P But unfortunately, the summer is the time of year when I have the least amount of free time, even though one would think it would be the other way around. Add to that the fact that when I got back to school it was to the busiest and most erratic schedule I've ever had in all my four years of college, and I really haven't had the opportunity to work on this much. And for once, I actually knew what I wanted to write and writer's block wasn't a problem at all!

So anyway, one more chapter in this one, and then the sequel comes up. I believe I mentioned this before, but this story is part one of a trilogy that I've planned. The second part will easily be the longest, and the third part will most likely be the shortest. But I'm getting head of myself. The foreshadowing I was talking about did happen a tiny bit, but the part I was thinking of has actually been moved to the next chapter, so you can look for it again. Of course I say this as though I didn't have foreshadowing in every other paragraph for about twenty different things. Haha. But this is the most obscure shit ever and if anyone actually guessing where I'm going with it I'll be really impressed.

As always, thanks to the prereading skills of SJR, you are not want for semicolons. Give him a hand.

One last thing before I ask for reviews again. A friend of mine and I are currently working on a website which will contain – among other things – a webcomic written by me. As it stands now, it will also be drawn by me, but I suck at drawing. So this is just a bit of an invitation to anyone who likes my writing style for whatever reason and would like to be a part of it. And who can draw. That part's important. If you're interested, send me an email, letting me know how much time you could devote to such a thing and a few samples of your art. My email is of course in my author profile, and I'm also available at Illjwamh at yahoo dot com.

So yeah, reviews. I love 'em. Send 'em in. And rip this bitch apart if you feel it's necessary, but I would ask that you do so constructively.


	9. Chapter 8: War

If all goes as planned, this will be the last chapter in "Koorikage". After that, it'll be on to part two of my little trilogy. In reality, that's the part I'm looking forward to writing the most. All the good stuff happens in there, and there's some _really_ cool characters I can't wait to get to. But alas, the need for exposition is ever-present, and we are slaves to its unbending notions.

With that in mind, a lot of shit is going to go down in this chapter. The entire purpose of _Koorikage_ was to set up the previous chapter, which was solely meant to set up this chapter, which exists only to set the groundwork for the _real_ story that lies ahead. That's a lot of pressure. On the bright side, I get to have a lot of fun with scenes I've been waiting to write ever since I started this little project. Oh boy!

See you at the end then, whenever that may be. Just as a reference, as I'm writing this intro, I just came back from the premier of _Serenity_ a few hours ago. God, what a great movie. I'm still geeking out over it.

Chapter 8 – War

"Hokage-sama!" Aoba shouted. Smoke and debris flew everywhere, and the smell of burnt wood and clothing filled Naruto's nostrils. He, along with the rest of the leaf ninja with him, made ready to leap to their Hokage's aid.

"Sorry, can't go that way," said a deep voice from in the smoke. It was cold and…mocking? A silhouette appeared to them as the smoke cleared and they could see baggy clothes, and a long, thin weapon strapped across the speaker's back.

"So that's how it is," Genma remarked calmly yet angrily. "The Mist have betrayed us after all."

"We can't betray those who were never our allies to begin with," the man in their way remarked. The smoke cleared a little more and Naruto could see nine other men standing with him. The blond boy swore under his breath.

"But tell me, why have you allied yourselves with Orochimaru?" Shizune demanded. "Surely you know what he did to the Sand when he fooled them into following his schemes?"  
"Of course we do; everyone knows how that fool of a Kazekage allowed himself to be manipulated and killed by Orochimaru," the man spat. "As for our current alliance with him, it is a means to suit our own ends. A temporary alliance of mutual benefit."

By now the smoke had cleared completely and they could see out onto the stage. Tsunade and Gaara were facing off against the other three Kage, and Arima, the new Koorikage, was staring down what looked to be five Sound jounin. On the other side, they could see Temari and Kankurou surrounded by the escort squads from the other two villages.

"So, you've roped the Cloud and the Stone into your designs as well," Genma drawled.

"It didn't take much convincing," the mist commander almost laughed. "They're not overly fond of the Leaf, and the Raikage in particular was upset at a Jinchuuriki being proclaimed Kazekage."

"Pfft. Idiot," Genma spat.

"Well, prejudice or not, it helped our Mizukage to sway him to our side," the man was smirking openly now. He slowly pulled his right arm back over his shoulder and grasped the hilt of his nodachi.

"I recognize you," Genma suddenly said. "Kurowaza Tourou, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Naruto's eyes widened. He'd only ever encountered two of the infamous Swordsmen of the Mist, and he'd never harbored a desire to meet any more of them.

If possible, Tourou's self-satisfied smirk grew even more smug. "It looks like the Leaf's information-gathering abilities are at least competent," he said as he slowly drew his ridiculously long sword. The way it gleamed even in the dust-filled twilight was unsettling. All around him, Naruto could hear the sounds of battle raging, for the explosion had surely been a cue for a full-scale assault, but all he could focus on was the dominating figure of the tall man in front of him with the eerie, blinding sword.

"If you know that much," the swordsman continued, "then you know you won't leave here alive. These men I have with me are some of the best in our village, and I plan on personally taking a few heads myself."

"Things won't go the way you planned," Genma told him resolutely. This somehow shook Naruto from his stupor and he was able to focus once more. He cursed himself even as he felt Sakura tap him on the shoulder.

"He used some kind of Genjutsu," she whispered to him. "I managed to release you from it, but I don't think he noticed. As soon as they're done talking, you'll have a few seconds to act."

Naruto could have kissed her. Of _course_ it was Genjutsu. He was a fully qualified ninja and did _not_ freeze up at the sight of a dangerous opponent. On the contrary, he relished the opportunity to test his skills. He would have felt excited, had the lives of so many of his important people not been on the line. As it was, he couldn't say anything for risk of drawing his enemy's attention.

"We need to reach Hokage-sama," Aoba said to the team as a whole. "Only once we've united can we fully face this threat."

Tourou laughed out loud. "You may be right about that, but I've already told you that you won't be getting past this point alive." He raised his sword so it was pointing at him, and the nine ninja standing around him sprang into action.

While his comrades immediately took up the defensive, Naruto waited an extra second, making the enemy believe he was still incapacitated. When one of them – his focus on Neji – ventured too close, he struck out as quickly as he possibly could and struck the man in the chest with the fastest Rasengan he'd ever formed. The technique drilled into the man, who was sent spiraling and flying toward his commander. Tourou waved his sword almost casually and sliced the already dead ninja in two, each half continuing on past him on either side. He did not look happy.

"You'll pay for that, brat," he snarled, and then vanished from view. Naruto looked around wildly, trying to place his foe. He felt a distortion of air to his left and looked to see the long sword already coming down on him.

CLANG.

Two crossed straight swords held up the offending blade mere inches from his face.

"Are you all right, Naruto-kun?" Sabu Yukiko asked, even as she struggled to hold her weapon in place against the mighty pressure being forced down upon it.

"Y…you guys!" He exclaimed in the utmost relief and surprise.

"Why are you here? Your leader's in danger!" Aoba yelled at them from where he was fighting another mist nin.

"Our mission was to guard and protect the emissary from the Leaf, no matter what," Saburo struggled to say through his physical exertion. "We will carry out that mission until we are no longer needed or we die. That is the way of the Snow." He pulled his sword suddenly away and made a swipe at Tourou's gut, who dodged easily away by jumping backward.

"How touching," the swordsman said. "But I have no qualms about killing you as well." He swung his sword in a downward arc and when it hit the ground, a jet of water shot out toward Naruto and the twins. There was no time to dodge, and Naruto gurgled as he tried to move away before the next attack came.

-

Hinata and Neji, meanwhile, had managed to split off from the rest of the group enough where they could use their skills to their fullest potential. The two of them stood back to back facing off against a pair of Mist jounin and a swath of Sound ninja of unknown rank who'd appeared moments before.

"Hinata-sama, as soon as we escape from this situation you must find a safe place and remain there," Neji said as they waited for their opponents to make the first move.

"No!" Hinata argued back. "I cannot do that, Neji-niisan. Not while my comrades are fighting. I will not hide like a child when I can help them."

"Hinata-sama," he said quietly, hoping their enemy wouldn't overhear, "my Byakugan will be sealed in the event of my death; yours will not. If you were to be killed or captured – "

"I understand, Neji-niisan," Hinata said solemnly. Then she turned her face upward into an ironic sort of grin that would have looked alien on her face even a year before. Even now it was a rare thing to see. "I will simply have to do my best not to be captured or killed."

Neji had nothing to say to that. His smile was one of resigned acceptance of her words, and his closed his eyes a moment to indulge, and even felt a flicker of pride for his younger cousin. She truly had come a long way.

"Very well," he said. "I shall also do my best to ensure that does not happen." _For more than just my duty to the clan, _he added in his head. His eyes shot open again. _Byakugan!_

_Byakugan!_

The two of them, their bloodline activated, had another moment to wait before their enemies launched a coordinated simultaneous physical assault. After all, with such a large group, two opponents were a minimal threat. Clearly their intelligence had been lacking as far as the Hyuuga clan was concerned.

Neji parried three strikes and countered each of them with a juuken strike of his own within the first few seconds, and Hinata fended off another two. The second wave, taken completely off-guard, did not have time to pull back before they, too, were repelled. After that, the entire enemy force took a moment to pause and rethink their strategy.

"We must do our best to keep them using mostly taijutsu," Neji murmured over his shoulder. "Under those circumstances our techniques can handle any number of them, but if this many were to start using ninjutsu, we would be in trouble."

"Understood," Hinata replied in the same fashion.

The apparent leader of their foes broke signaled to his men and then spoke. "You Konoha brats don't know what you're dealing with," the Mist nin said. "We may have underestimated you, true, but not so much that you have any chance of winning this fight." He signaled again, and three of the Sound ninja threw projectiles while three more and the other Mist nin charged in again. It was going to be a long battle.

-

Sakura, meanwhile, had her hands full as well. She and Shikamaru were clearly outmatched by their opponent and Aoba and Genma were busy with two jounin each. Shizune was fighting another, desperately trying to reach Tsunade, and Naruto and the twins were fighting for their lives against Kurowaza Tourou.

Naruto! How could she have forgotten? He was no match for a guy like that and even he knew it. She had to help him, but how? The jounin they were fighting was incredibly skilled, and Naruto's opponent was even stronger. What could she do to help?

_That's not the way to be thinking right now,_ she told herself angrily, avoiding a concentrated burst of water shot in her direction. _The important thing is that I have to help; right now it's not even important how._ She leapt back to avoid another attack and there was a brief pause in the fighting. She had to think of a way to end this battle quickly, but how?

_Think! What resources are available?_ The only things she had were her own skills, weapons, and those of…Shikamaru! If she could distract their opponent long enough, there was a chance Shikamaru could ensnare him with that Kagemane no Jutsu of his. She made eye contact with him for a brief instant to let him know her intentions, and then dashed into action.

She charged her opponent with all her speed, and formed seals as she went. _Bunshin no Jutsu!_ She formed three clones, each running as she was toward her enemy.

"You have to be joking," the Mist ninja chided. He formed seals and performed a jutsu that made a seeming wall of water in front of him. Sakura kept up her attack, taking the opportunity to switch places with one of her clones.

When she was just a few yards away, the Mist ninja burst through the water to cleave her in two with the axe he carried. As she expected, he hit the clone she'd switched with, and the real her jumped over his head and delivered a kick to his neck.

Except that when the kick connected, her opponent's body turned to water and splashed to the floor. She barely had time to swear before the axe swung down from her left and sliced through her skull.

-

Temari and Kankurou looked around with contempt at the ninja that were encircling them. Six ninja from the Stone and six from the cloud had suddenly turned on them when the explosion rocked the stage. It wasn't difficult to discern what was going on.

"You guys like overkill, it looks like," Kankurou taunted. "Are you really so weak that you need twelve shinobi to handle the two of us?"

"It's not our fault the Sand was stupid and only brought the two of you along," one of the Cloud nins replied.

"There are two missing from each group," Temari observed casually. "Watch for them to appear later."

"Aa," Kankurou said, reaching around his back to unhook the burden he carried. He slammed his puppet down on the floor.

"It's to bad, though," another Cloud nin said. "I was hoping this would at least be an interesting fight."

"Too bad for you for underestimating us," Kankurou said as he tugged a little on the bandages that kept his puppet contained. "We don't need anyone else to help us with the likes of you."

"Kill these arrogant bastards!" one of the Stone nin shouted. A mad wave came at them, and Kankurou yanked hard to remove the bandages in one stroke. A figure shot forward, and an instant later, three enemy ninja were on the floor in pieces.

"It's about time you let me out of there," Baki said, his wind blade dissipating. "Remaining immobile for so long is exceptionally uncomfortable."

"There's a third one!" One of the nine remaining enemies shouted unnecessarily.

Kankurou laughed and placed his hands on the scrolls he'd already laid out on the floor. "That's what you get for making assumptions about your enemy," he said. He infused chakura into the scrolls and a second later had summoned his three puppets: Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouuo.

"He's a puppeteer, be careful!" another enemy shouted. They pulled back to regroup, but Temari had already hit and wounded a couple more of them with a _Kamaitachi_. It would seem their enemy had grossly underestimated them indeed.

-

While all this was going on all around, up on the stage it was a standoff. Even though it was three kage against two, not one of them knew where to begin. It would seem that the Raikage, Mizukage and Tsuchikage were all aware of Gaara's unique…abilities and none of them wanted to be the first to take him on. Tsunade's lip curled in disdain. Such cowards were not fit to be kage.

"This was a foolish move, Mizukage-dono," she said coolly, unknowingly resembling her former sensei during the attack which led to his death three years prior. "Even if you're victorious here, the combined power of the Leaf, the Sand and the Snow will be enough to bring you down."

"That's where you're wrong, I'm afraid," the Mizukage answered cheekily. "For you see, we have more allies than simply Orochimaru. We are not so foolish as to place our full trust in him as the Sand did."

"Are you trying to start a war across the entire continent?" Tsunade asked in disbelief.

"If that comes about, then there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it," Mizukage said. "The Leaf have been too powerful for too long. Even after you suffered staggering losses three years ago, you remain the strongest shinobi nation. The balance of power must eventually shift, as that is the way of the world. No one entity can remain the strongest for too long, or it disrupts the natural order of things. We simply wish to restore balance and order to the world."

"And you want the Mist to emerge as the strongest too, of course," Tsunade jeered.

"If that is the way of it, then so be it. Doubtless the Cloud and the Stone have similar ambitions; we will have to wait and see who comes forward as the strongest at the end."

"How can you so easily enter into an alliance that you know is made to collapse?" Tsunade asked the three of them. It was Tsuchikage who answered her.

"Do not try and sow dissention among us, Hokage-dono. We have considered what you are saying already and in the short term it makes no difference. Konoha must fall. In the long term, we may indeed come into conflict with our current allies, but as far as this current campaign is concerned, none among us will be prepared to continue hostilities at its immediate resolution."

"You have to remember, Hokage-dono," the Raikage spoke "that alliances within the shinobi world are only ones of convenience. When two factions share a similar goal, they can work together to achieve that goal, even if their aims are typically not the same. Your own alliance with the Sand will inevitably dissolve once there is nothing more you can gain from each other."

"You're mistaken," Gaara said, as calmly as if they were discussing the weather. "Such bonds are not to be cast aside lightly. An alliance of convenience is not an alliance at all; it is both sides attempting to manipulate the other. To be an ally to someone is to take that someone as one of your own, and protect them as you would protect your family. To be an ally is to trust that they will do so for you in return. A debt owed to an ally can never be repaid, and likewise can always be called upon. When one has an ally, one is never alone and need not fear destruction."

"Such idealism from such a misguided youth," Mizukage sneered.

"I don't know; I thought it was very insightful," came a new voice to the conversation. All eyes turned to where Arima Shuichi – the Koorikage – had a kunai held to the side of the Mizukage's throat.

-

Twin clangs reverberated around the backstage wing as two halves of a stage light hit the floor. Sakura's kawarimi had been just in time, and now a flurry of shuriken rained down on her assailant.

"Impressive!" He yelled as he deflected them with a jet of water shot from his mouth. The jet also hit Sakura, still in the air, and sent her reeling to the ground. "However, your elementary skills are still no match for me. He prepared the seals for another jutsu, when suddenly his body froze.

"What? What is this!" he struggled to free himself, but it was no use; his body was not his to control.

"For a jounin, you aren't very good at keeping track of all your surroundings," came Nara Shikamaru's taunting voice. "I wonder if all the jounin from your village are this easy to defeat." He made another set of seals, and the shadows at the Mist nin's feet began to curl upwards until they encircled his neck. His cries of protest and begs for mercy were choked out by his death rattle as he slumped and fell to the floor. Shikamaru let out a huge sigh of relief.

"That one had me worried for a moment," he said.

"You just said he was easy to defeat!" Sakura raved at him. Shikamaru merely gave her an exasperated look.

"Well, I was worried about what Naruto would've done to me if you'd been killed as much as anything," he said.

"Naruto!" Sakura suddenly remembered. "He needs help!"

"What could you possibly do against that guy he's fighting?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know, but we have to do something!" she persisted.

"Look, the best way to help Naruto right now is to help the others," Shikamaru patiently explained. "And then let them help him."

Sakura seemed to take a moment to consider this, and then nodded her head in agreement.

"All right," she said. "Let's go."

They ran toward where the jounin from their group were fighting three-on-five; somehow, during the course of only a minute or so, they'd managed to become separated significantly, which was not a good thing. Dead or not, perhaps the ninja they'd been fighting had been better than he'd seemed after all.

-

Completely on the other end of the platform now, Naruto was learning that the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist certainly earned their reputation. He and the Sabu twins were using everything they had in terms of ninjutsu and taijutsu just to stay alive. It was safe to say that this opponent was too much for the three of them and they wouldn't last much longer without help.

"If we can hold him off for just a little longer, the others can help us," Yukio said as she parried a sword strike and dodged a cannon-like burst of water. Either Tourou's attacks were coming closer together, or theirs were slowing down; either way it wasn't looking good.

"Do you really think we can hold out long enough for help to arrive?" Saburo asked, leaping over a clawing hand of water and blocking three kunai with his sword. He'd already taken a shuriken to the thigh, and though it was not a very deep wound he was slowing the most of the three of them.

"We have to," Naruto said, his face set in grim determination. He avoided a dragon made from water aimed at him and hurled off a handful of shuriken that he wasn't really expecting to hit anything. "I've fought some of these swordsmen guys before. They all have some sort of special technique or whatever. If we stay in close enough to him, maybe we can keep him from using it."

"Hopefully preventing him from using his strongest techniques will be enough to protect us," Saburo said, following the idea and dashing in to attack directly with his sword. His sister joined him a moment later. Naruto said nothing, but he agreed. Not for a long time had he so heavily doubted his chances of surviving a fight. He made it his practice to avoid such lines of thought, but in this situation it was difficult not to have the idea cross his mind.

_I hope you're doing better than I am, Baa-chan. Sakura-chan._

-

Sakura and Shikamaru raced across the platform, but the enemy's now-obvious plan to spread them out had worked very well. Already they'd encountered two individual Sound chuunin – who were dispatched easily enough, but every second they stopped to fight allowed more time for their comrades to move farther away.

"They were over here!" Sakura yelled as she pointed to the stage entrance where they'd all been standing earlier, watching the announcement. They passed by an area where two ninja were being swamped by a large group, and on a second glance they realized who those two ninja were.

"Shikamaru! It's Hinata and Neji!"

The Nara stopped to look, and sure enough, the two Hyuuga were fighting like demons, blasting back enemies at every turn, who forced themselves up only to get knocked down again. There had to be at least twelve of them, and yet the two leaf chuunin were fighting them off as if they were mere street thugs.

"That's…amazing," Sakura stammered, momentarily forgetting her agenda and staring transfixed at the spectacle in front of her.

"The Hyuuga bloodline would lend itself well to fighting multiple enemies at once," Shikamaru said. "With their fighting style, a single hit will damage one foe long enough to move to the next, and as such it's difficult to defend against since the enemy does not know who or where they will strike next. Also the Byakugan allows them to see all around them, showing any openings in the enemy's group defense, even behind them."

And it did indeed appear that the two juuken users knew exactly where every enemy around them was, where to hit them and when. There wasn't a single break in either of their movements; it was like they were just flowing from one strike to the next in a sort of dance. It was beautiful to watch.

"We should go," Shikamaru said. "They can handle themselves, since they've obviously managed to restrict their enemies to taijutsu, and the others still need help."

"Right," Sakura nodded. She turned just as Hinata performed a kaiten to knock back three Sound nins who'd been coming at her at once. It really was incredible.

"The others are over here, I see them," Shikamaru called to her. "We should plan an attack before we alert them to our presence, though. Surprise is our best weapon right now."

"Right," Sakura said again.

"Couldn't agree with you more!" Came a voice from above them. Two mist nins were dropping down on them from above, but before they could even react, a ridiculous amount of kunai and shuriken landed all across their fronts, sending them flying backwards and landing on the floor with two big whumps. Sakura and Shikamaru watched this happen, and then behind them another figure dropped.

"It's nice that you came when you did," Musuka said. "I was waiting for a clean shot at them."

"I was wondering where the other two of them were," Shikamaru drawled lazily. "Only ten of them showed up at the first explosion, even though twelve of them came to the village."

"Are these really jounin?" Sakura asked in disbelief, going over to kick one of them in the foot.

"They do seem easy to kill, don't they?" Musuka remarked. "I suppose it must be overconfidence."

"No jounin worth his salt should make a rookie mistake like that," Shikamaru said disdainfully.

"I know," Musuka grinned. "Works out well for us though, doesn't it?"

"So that's two here," Sakura counted on her fingers, "plus the one Naruto killed earlier, the one we killed a minute ago, and the two that Hinata and Neji are fighting…"

"There should be five of them left, plus that one Naruto and the twins are fighting," Shikamaru finished. "I don't know how much longer they can last against him; we should get moving again."

The three of them made a beeline toward Shizune and the others, hoping they wouldn't run into any more ambushes. They just didn't have the time.

-

Five against three was not good odds. Shizune, Aoba and Genma had clustered together shortly into the battle, but things still looked bad. They hadn't managed to kill any of their opponents yet, and they were starting to fatigue.

"It looks like you planned this out very well," Genma remarked to one of their adversaries during a lull in the fighting. "But what will the ultimate cost be?"

"If you're referring to a counterattack, it will never happen," a Mist nin said. "No one in your village knows what has happened, and so they will be completely unprepared when we attack."

"That is of course assuming you manage to kill us all here," Genma retorted. Inwardly, he was processing what the enemy ninja had just told him. So they hadn't coordinated an attack on Konoha with the attack on Yukigakure. That was interesting. He assumed it was because they didn't know the particulars of the Snow's plans and couldn't pinpoint a time to strike. It also meant that a message had been sent or soon would be, giving the go-ahead for the second offensive.

"I wouldn't worry about that," another mist ninja said. He formed a few seals and a thick fog came up and surrounded them all.

"Look out!" Genma shouted. Immediately after he fended off attacks from at least two of their enemies with exceptional difficulty, as he couldn't see them until they were about a foot away. There were some clanging noises and a few grunts and the like, and all of a sudden the fog lifted – the result of a whirlwind jutsu Shizune had used.

Genma looked over and saw what he'd been dreading: a mist nin lay dead at Aoba's feet, but Aoba had been impaled from behind by another, apparently while his attention had been diverted. The offending mist ninja had an unreadable look on his face.

"Aoba!" Shizune shouted desperately. The shinobi in question coughed up a frighteningly large spurt of blood.

"At least I managed to get one of them," he choked out, forcing his mouth into a grin. "Make sure to…protect Hokage-sama…" and Aoba slid forward off his killer's sword, and fell to the ground, dead. He almost landed on top of the ninja he'd killed only a moment before. Genma and Shizune only had a few seconds to look on in horror before they were attacked again, with even worse odds than before.

-

The stage was silent for several moments after Arima's declaration and no one moved. The whole situation was a taught wire waiting to snap.

"Hmm, as expected from someone wishing to call himself kage," Mizukage declared idly, barely glancing at the kunai on his neck. He then splashed to the ground in a puddle, and the battle began.

All six of them were moving at once. Tsuchikage performed a bizarre jutsu that raised two stone golem-looking things from the ground, even as Gaara sent a wave of sand in his direction. Raikage had vanished in a flash of light, and Tsunade summoned a slug twice her size, still managing to turn and defend against his attack afterwards. The Mizukage's puddle had split into five separate ones, and now each of them was rising into a new clone. Arima just smiled and performed a few seals of his own.

_Koori bunshin no jutsu!_ Four clones swirled into being around him, presumably forged from the water vapor in the air.

"That won't be enough," Mizukage said. "Even supposing you were a match for me, Tourou and his subordinates will have finished off the other delegations soon enough and then he'll be here to help finish you all off."

"Depending on outside help?" Arima jeered. "A kage should be able to handle himself in a battle against any opponent."

"I don't need someone like you to tell me what a kage should be capable of," the Mizukage spat, and launched five different water jutsu at the real Arima – one from each clone. However, only moments later they were all frozen solid, and looked like nothing more than elaborate ice sculptures. Arima's ice clones rushed forward to engage the water clones in melee combat.

"You'll have to use techniques from outside your village if you hope to defeat me," the Koorikage declared calmly as he spun around behind a clone and stabbed at the real Mizukage with a large icicle. It speared through a podium and the ground underneath him began to crumble.

"If that is what it takes," Mizukage said, emerging from the floorboards under Arima's wavering feet. He reached out at Arima's throat with fingernails lengthened and sharpened like daggers, only to have them shatter on a wall of ice that shot up in front of the Koorikage. It seemed as though they were evenly matched, which was not according to plan at all.

-

"That's the last of them," Kankurou said as Karasu released its final victim and he put his puppets away. "Be on the lookout for those last four."

"No need," came a deep masculine voice from the shadows about ten feet away. Temari turned and all but had an attack off before she noticed the snowflake on the man's hitae-ate. His silhouette was all that was visible of him aside from that at first, but he quickly stepped into the light and Temari felt her pulse rise. This was one of them most handsome men she had ever seen.

"My siblings and I were assigned to guard the emissaries of the Cloud and the Stone," he said, even as he casually chucked the body of a dead Stone ninja at their feet. "When the Sound attacked, they turned on us, but we finished them easily enough. We were coming here to help you, in fact. Your guard detail was unfortunately intercepted and killed by Sound ninja on their way to you. We dealt with them as well."

"Where are the rest of you?" Baki asked in his usual hard voice. Temari jumped as three more ninja suddenly appeared from the shadows next to the man as if they'd been there all along. Each had a dead ninja and threw it toward them as the first had. The man who'd been speaking to them smirked.

"Forgive my siblings, they love to hide. Please allow me some introductions. I am Sabu Daiichi." If there was ever a name that could fit this man, that was it, Temari concluded. He was as tall as Baki but nearly twice as broad in the shoulders, and his muscles looked almost too big to be real. He had no weapons on him at all save his kunai holster and shuriken pouch, and he wore spiked metal bands across his knuckles. Despite clearly being an accomplished warrior, not a single scar marred his chiseled face. He wore a sleeveless vest – madness! – and had thick bands around his forearms, from which feathers dangled. A loose sleeveless shirt underneath and loose-fitting pants completed his casual appearance. He gestured to the woman on his right, and introduced her as his first younger sister, Sora. Sora was a mature-looking woman of about twenty with fairly small breasts, and she had short black hair that curled outward just below her ears. She was dressed in a form-fitting white top with colored prints on it that looked sort of like a kimono that stopped at the waist, and her pants (if they could even be called pants) were of some sort of sleek, shiny material Temari had never seen. Her boots came to her knees and had knives of various sizes holstered in them. Finally, she had a very large and ornate scythe strapped to her back.

"Next is our younger brother Kenji," Daichi went on. Temari gasped, for if anything this man was even more good-looking than her brother. He wore a long coat that nearly touched the ground but again had short sleeves _Do these people even feel the cold?_ Temari wondered. He was much slimmer than his brother, though just as tall and his muscles were just as well defined if not as large. He carried a sword at his waist and what looked like an ice pick was strapped across his lower back. His hair was short and spiked, and the his one flaw (if she were being truly nitpicky) was that his nose seemed slightly too large for his face. He grinned at her in a way that made her pulse race and she fought to keep her face from flushing.

"Last is our little sister Sango," Daichi said. "She's a chuunin, but skilled enough.." He gestured to a girl shorter and clearly younger than Sora, though better endowed. Her hair was black like her sister's, but went halfway down her back in a ponytail. She was dressed in a tight black material with bits of pink over the joints that looked like armor of some sort, and she wore an enormous boomerang even larger than Temari's own fan across her back.

"It's good you were here," Baki said, and quickly introduced the three of them. "Do you have any idea what set off this attack?"

"The jerks were planning this all along," Kenji said in a voice that sounded like he wanted to laugh. "The Mist were in on it too, from the looks of things."

"How did they get the Sound to help them?" Kankurou asked.

"Actually, it seems exactly the sort of thing Orochimaru would be interested in," Baki said. Temari had managed to get herself under control and stop staring at the two brothers. She didn't think they noticed, but their sisters might have. Just great.

"In any case," Daichi said, "now that we're sure you're all right, we're going to go help our siblings."

"What? You have more siblings?" Temari asked in amazement. Sora smiled at her in a way that said she _had_ noticed something earlier. Fantastic.

"Quite a few more," she said. "But two of them were assigned to guard the Leaf delegation, along with a cousin of ours."

"The Leaf?" It was just now dawning on her that her friends in the Leaf would have been attacked as well. Of course they would have been. "We'll come with you."

The older woman looked at her quizzically for a moment before nodding slightly. "All right, do as you wish." And the four siblings jumped off. Temari shared a look with her brother and former teacher before they hurried off after their new allies.

-

The timely arrival of Shikamaru, Sakura and Musuka had surely saved the lives of the two remaining Leaf jounin. But on their way to help Naruto and the twins, they were waylaid by yet more Sound ninja.

"Orochimaru never seems to suffer from a shortage of subordinates, does he?" Genma asked as he fended one off.

"On the bright side, they never seem as well-trained as they could be," Shikamaru said, fending off another one with Musuka's help. Sakura and Shizune were working together on a third.

"Still, they're managing to tire us out effectively," Genma remarked. "It won't be long before even a genin would be able to finish us off.

"We have to get to Naruto," Sakura said desperately, sinking to the ground under an attack. She sprang up behind her opponent even as Shizune came in where she had just been. With the Sound ninja's focus on the older woman, Sakura plunged her kunai into his neck, ending the fight.

"If that's the last we see of them, we still might not make it to him in time," Shikamaru said. Naruto's fight had drifted from them even more over the chaos of the last several minutes.

"Don't even say that!" Sakura chastised him. "Come on!" They hurried off again toward where they could see Naruto and the twins still managing to fight for their lives against the deadly swordsman from the Mist. Along the way, they passed Hinata and Neji. The two Hyuuga had managed to kill five of their opponents, but were finally beginning to succumb to fatigue. They were being overwhelmed.

Just as Sakura and her group were about to intervene however, a boomerang of ridiculous proportions flew from the other side of the stage and took two of the Sound ninja out of the fight. Sakura could hear their ribs shatter. Almost the same instant, bizarre-looking knives planted themselves in the faces of two more. A strong gust of wind blew, and suddenly Baki of the sand and a large man with spiked knuckles she'd never seen before appeared as suddenly as the boomerang – now flying back to where it had come from – and killed all but one of those remaining. The Karasu puppet that she knew belonged to Kankurou appeared from one of the stage curtains to finish off the last one. The entire assault lasted all of six seconds. An exhausted pair of Hyuuga were catching their breath and speaking words of gratitude when Sakura remembered what they'd been doing before coming upon the fight.

"Naruto!" She looked over to where he was frantically, but she heard chuckling as a beautiful woman in a white top with a very large scythe on her back appeared and said, "If you're worried about your friend, don't be. We sent help to him, too." Sakura didn't even have time to ask what she meant before she saw for herself.

-

Tourou had managed some sort of jutsu that burst Naruto and his companions back as if shot out of a cannon. From the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Saburo hit his head hard on a support beam or something and not get back up. Yukiko was slammed into a wall and slumped down to the ground. She was still moving, but not very well.

As for himself, he fortunately only hit the ground, but it was bad enough. He was completely exhausted and that last blow knocked whatever wind was left out of him. He was having trouble focusing; he had to keep blinking and wiping water out of his eyes, and his body ached too much to get up. He tried anyway, but kept slipping on the wet ground. Tourou was stalking toward him purposefully with a grin on his face. And in a blink, he vanished and reappeared right over Naruto, his sword drawn back for the killing blow. Naruto instinctively began molding the chakura for a kawarimi no jutsu, but he knew it was too late. He wasn't getting out this time.

CLANG!

Naruto wiped his eyes again and, confused to why he was still alive, looked up and saw Tourou's sword being held by a standard-sized – if somewhat straighter than normal – sword. This sword was being held backhanded almost casually by a young man in a long coat with spiked hair and a hawk-like nose and a snowflake on his hitae-ate. He looked vaguely familiar for some reason, but at the moment Naruto couldn't think (or care) why.

"You all right?" the man asked.

"Of course!" Naruto blustered with infinitely more gusto than he felt. "Thanks for the help!" He figured he'd better add that last part. No need to be rude.

"No problem. Thanks for keeping my little brother and sister alive," he said.

"Your…"

"And just who the hell are you?" Tourou growled, interrupting. His sword was still pressed down against the newcomer's.

"I would say it's polite to introduce yourself first, but I already know who you are, Kurowaza Tourou," the man said. "My name is Sabu Kenji, and it's time for you to leave this village."

"Is that so?" Tourou seemed almost amused. He could have pulled it off if he wasn't so obviously annoyed at being caught off-guard.

"Absolutely," Kenji smiled amicably. "Even if by some miracle you managed to get by me, your subordinates have all been killed, along with your allies from the Stone and the Cloud. As we speak another dozen ninja are on their way here to make sure you're dealt with."

Tourou's face slipped almost imperceptibly. Clearly things had not gone the way he expected them to.

"That's not possible," he said. Kenji smiled again.

"Either you've overestimated your own strength, or you've underestimated ours. Either way, you're going to die unless you run now and take your Mizukage with you."

Tourou hesitated for another second before vanishing in the direction of the stage where Naruto could only presume the kage were all presently fighting.

"Whew," Kenji sighed and relaxed his muscles. It was a surprise; he'd looked so casual that Naruto hadn't noticed until now he'd tensed them at all.

"What are you doing, sighing like that?" Naruto demanded. "And why did you let him go? You should have just finished him off right now! Now he'll come back!"

"Well, you sure got your energy back fast, didn't you?" Kenji said wryly, holding his sword over his shoulder. "If I could've killed him, I would have. As it was, all I had time to do was stop him from killing you. If I'd fought him from there, I don't know if I could've beaten him."

"What! After all that you just said?"

"I was bluffing, Naruto-kun," Kenji grinned again. "I hear it's something you do quite a bit, too. I'm surprised you didn't recognize it."

"Well, yeah, I guess, but…wait a minute! How do you know my name?"

"Are you kidding?" The man laughed. "How could I not know your name? You're all Musuka talks about. The twins seem to really like you, too."

"Oh, right, you said you were their brother," Naruto remembered.

"Yes, and thank you for looking after them," Kenji said. That's what he'd said his name was, right? It was the first serious expression on his face since Tourou left.

"Well, they kinda saved me," Naruto admitted. "Just like you did, really."

"Is that so?" Kenji suddenly got a rather fond look on his face and drifted off for a second before saying, "well, my family is especially adept at lurking in the shadows and catching an enemy off-guard. To be honest, the two of them together would have had less of a chance of beating him than me."

"Really?" Naruto didn't know what to be skeptical about. He thought this guy stood as good a chance as anyone against Tourou, but he also thought the twins together could probably have taken him if they'd attacked from the start instead of moving to defend him. There was a hole in all that somewhere, but he couldn't figure out where.

"Naruto!" he spun as he heard the familiar voice calling to him. Sakura was leading a good dozen people over toward him at a run. Some of them looked like Snow ninja, and the Sand siblings were there as well. So this Kenji guy's bluff had had some truth behind it, too. That was good, because it probably meant the part about all the other enemies being dead was true as well.

"Are you all right?" his teammate asked as the group arrived. All the tension and stress he'd built up throughout the battle vanished with the sound of her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said with his usual confidence. "This Kenji guy got here just in time." Something occurred to him. "I hope the twins are okay. They got hit pretty bad with that last jutsu."

"I'll check them," said a slender woman with short black hair. She was off in a blink to do so.

"Hey, where's Aoba?" Naruto asked. All the Leaf ninja present lowered their heads.

"He didn't make it," Shizune said.

"Those bastards!" Naruto cursed. "This is all Orochimaru's fault!"

"No, it isn't," Genma said. "It's more likely the Mizukage's fault than anybody else's."

Shizune's eyebrows shot up. "Tsunade-sama!" She made to leave, but a burly guy with spikes on his knuckles grabbed her by the arm.

"You all are too tired to help. You'd just end up getting in their way. We'll go." He looked at Kenji, and Naruto knew from looking at them that they must be brothers. The two of them nodded, and were about to leave when they looked at the third Snow nin Naruto didn't know, a pretty girl with long black hair, nice curves and an absurdly huge boomerang.

"Stay here, Sango," the big guy said. She started to protest, but Kenji cut her off.

"You're only a chuunin, and there's no place for you in a battle of the level that's going on out there. You know that." She held his gaze for a few seconds more before reluctantly nodding.

"Send Sora along when she gets back," the big guy said, and they were off. Baki went with them, after indicating to Kankurou and Temari that they were not to follow.

"Jerks," the girl named Sango muttered. She really was very pretty. If Sakura hadn't been standing right there, Naruto might even have been tempted to say something to that effect. As it was, he just offered her an understanding smile. He'd been left behind before, too.

"You know they're right, Sango," Musuka piped up. Naruto had forgotten his friend was even there. "Even I can't go." She nodded again, and the woman apparently named Sora reappeared, carrying Saburo and supporting Yukiko.

"They're both hurt pretty badly," she said, handing Yukiko off to Sango so that she could lay Saburo down gently on the ground. "Yukio should be fine with some rest and basic treatment, but I'm afraid Saburo is seriously injured. His skull has been cracked and he's bleeding a great deal."

"We'll take care of him," Shizune said at once. "Sakura, Hinata!" The two named girls nodded, and bent down over Saburo together with Shizune.

"They're three of the best medical ninja in Konoha, next to the Hokage herself," Genma said comfortingly. "He'll be fine." Sora looked at him for a moment, then glanced back at her brother before saying, "thank you," in the softest voice possible.

"Your brothers wanted you to join them," Genma went on. "They went to help your Koorikage and the Hokage."

Sora's soft smile immediately took on the qualities of a smirk. "Oh did they? How completely like them. I suppose I should go help them, then." She reached down to her right side to grasp the handle of her scythe where it stuck out from behind her back.

"Be careful, Onee-chan," Yukiko said weakly from where she was sitting with Sango. Sora smiled at her sisters and disappeared.

"We've managed to stabilize his condition," Sakura said without looking up. The three of them hunched over Saburo's unmoving form made quite a scene. "He'll live for certain now, though he'll have to take a long time to fully recover.

"I wish we could have done more for him," Shizune said as she stood up. "But we all used up most of our chakura in that fight."

"No, thank you," Yukiko said. Even in her weakened state she still had her ever-present smile. "You've saved my brother's life, and for that I'm forever in your debt. And yours, of course, Naruto-kun." She smiled warmly at him.

"Huh? What? What did I do? You guys are the ones who saved me!" he protested.

"We were only doing our job," Yukiko explained. "We'd been assigned to protect you all. It was you who kept us alive. That man would have killed us for sure."

"Well, it's not like I was going to run away or something after you saved my neck," Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Even if I didn't like you I couldn't have done that." Yukiko smiled at him again, and for some reason Sakura did, too. That made him feel pretty good, even if he still didn't think he'd done anything special.

Yukiko hissed in pain and her hand shot to her side, and Sakura, Hinata and that girl with the boomerang – Sango – were at her side in moments.

"You shouldn't be talking so much, Oneesan," Sango admonished. Naruto subconsciously logged that she was younger than the twins, but by her…assets, she surely was older than Shiro. It was so hard to keep track with this family.

"Three of her ribs are broken," Sakura announced. "We can heal them, but we've used up too much chakura to do a very good job of it right now."

"It'll have to wait," a familiar voice announced from the direction of the stage. Naruto looked up to see Tsunade approaching at a swift walk along with Gaara, Baki, the older Sabu siblings, and Arima, the new Koorikage. Since she instantly had everyone's attention, she didn't wait to reach them to continue speaking.

"The attack has been repelled for the moment. Apparently our strength, along with that of the Sand and the Snow, was underestimated, but we're still in danger here."

"They wouldn't have planned something like this lightly," Arima said. Their group had joined Naruto's now. "They know that if anything goes wrong here, they'll have the full strength of all three of our villages to deal with. Since they'll definitely want to avoid that, they're going to make sure no news of the attack can be carried out of here until they've put the rest of their plans in motion – whatever those are."

"So we're penned in," Genma remarked.

"So it would seem."

"Koorikage-sama," said the really big guy who looked kind of like Kenji. He was probably the older of the two. How big was this family? "Perhaps we should fall back to the safety hole. The village can be patrolled by minimal scouts, and our strength will be concentrated should we be forced to defend ourselves again."

"Yes, Daiichi," Arima said. "That is what we will do. Inform your father. I'll be trusting him to arrange for getting everybody there, and for setting up a lookout perimeter."

"At once, Koorikage-sama." And he vanished.

"Of course the rest of you are welcome to join us in the hole," Arima said to the Leaf and Sand ninja. "It's much nicer than its name implies, I assure you, and it is the safest place in the village, even when not full of ninja."

"You trust us, then?" Gaara asked, quite casually. "A village's last line of defense is its greatest secret, even beyond its bloodlines and techniques."

"Well, it would seem we have no choice regardless, since the alternative would be to abandon you to your own devices in the midst of our enemies, but from what I have seen, I do trust you, yes." Arima almost smiled, and seemed more like a wise old man than the powerful young warrior that he was. "Of course you can always attempt to flee, but I would not recommend it. The village is most likely already surrounded, and there's no way of knowing what type of ninja are out there, or how many." Especially with Orochimaru involved, Naruto thought.

"We accept your offer, of course," Tsunade said. "It will give us time to rest and restore our chakura, and devise a plan to warn our own villages."

"We'd best be off quickly, then," Arima said. "Sora, can I ask you and your brother to sweep the village and bring in any of our wounded you find?"

"Of course, Koorikage-sama," the slender woman with the scythe replied. They sure got used to addressing Arima like that quickly. They must have practiced before. "Let's go, Kenji." The two of them vanished like their brother had.

"Can you walk, Oneesan?" Sango asked Yukiko, who was trying to struggle to her feet. The older girl waved her off. "I'll be fine. Look after Saburo."

"You can carry him," Sakura piped up, "but be careful not to move his head too much." Sango nodded and stepped over to gingerly pick up her brother. The rest of the group was scanning the area, preparing to leave and head for this hole – whatever it was. Well, most of them were.

"You're certain you're fit to walk?" Neji asked Yukiko, who had finally managed to stand. "We need to move quickly, and it will do you nor us no good if one of your broken ribs punctures a lung." The kunoichi turned her head to look up at Neji, and for some reason, she seemed to be smirking. No, he must have imagined it.

"You can help me if you want," she said. No, she wasn't smirking; she was just smiling like she always did. Of course.

Neji seemed to stutter for a second – unusual for him – before taking her right arm and draping it over his shoulder. "Very well," he said plainly. Yukiko's smile changed, and now it looked like it always did, only bigger. So what _had _it been before?

"Are you really all right, Naruto?" Sakura's voice to his right made him jerk his head. He grinned at her.

"Yeah, just a little tired, I guess. Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" It was a simple question, but for the first time since everything had happened, he realized that Sakura had been as much in danger of dying as any of the rest of them. Of course she had been. Terror suddenly struck him as he contemplated what could have been.

"Yeah, I'm just tired too." She smiled at him, but then her look changed to one of concern. "Are you cold?" She asked. "You're shivering like crazy."

"Huh?" He was. If Sakura had been hurt…killed…

"We should get you inside fast," Sakura said firmly. "You've used up so much chakura that you don't have enough left to keep warm."

"Well, we're ready to move," Tsunade said, standing over them, "so hurry it up then."

Sakura reached out and took his arms, bringing him to his feet. All this time he'd been crouching in the spot where Tourou had nearly sliced him in half. She rubbed his arms with her hands and then brought him into an embrace. Any other time this act would have sent joy surging though his veins, even if she was only trying to keep him warm. He shakily raised his arms and clutched her to him, holding her tight.

"I'll be all right, Sakura-chan," he said in the steadiest voice he could muster. What kind of wimpy ninja was he, anyway? "Let's go, we're holding everyone up." He reluctantly let her go, and her face said she doubted whether he was really okay or not, but she nodded and the group set on their way.

-

The Hole turned out to be a massive cave under the village, with only one entrance directly below Arima's tower. With the whole village in there, including civilians, there was still room for half again as many people before it would start to seem cramped. There was only so much food available though, so they wouldn't be able to stay for long.

It had been a full day and then some since the assault, and the scouts were reporting that the enemy was setting up to attack again as soon as they could find a way in. There were enough Snow ninja above ground to give the illusion of a solid defense, but that wouldn't last for long.

The Leaf and Sand ninja had gathered together with Arima and the elder Sabu siblings to decide what to do about warning their respective villages. Shikamaru didn't like what he was hearing so far.

"Hokage-sama," he said, "I think it would be best if you remained here. It's the safest place we know right now, and in the event of an attack, you'll be able to pool your strength with the Kazekage and the Koorikage. A small squad should be able to break through unnoticed much easier than a large one, and move faster as well."

"You're right, of course," Tsunade said. "And at a time like this, I have to think strategically and not with my emotions. All right then, Shikamaru, who do you want to go with you?"

He'd been afraid of that. It was his idea, so of course he would have to lead it. Well, nothing to be done about it now.

"All I'll need is Neji, Naruto and Sakura," he said. Neji and Naruto would hopefully be able to handle any enemies they ran into, and of course Neji had his Byakugan. Sakura had to be their medical nin, since Shizune had to stay with the Hokage and Hinata couldn't be risked, even though having another Byakugan would have been handy.

"We should go with you," Temari said to him. She looked worried and determined at the same time. He would never understand that woman.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Shikamaru said. "As I said, the smaller our group, the less chance we have of being detected. Besides, it's an additional hard three days to Sunagakure. It would be easier and faster to send out birds from Konoha."

"But…"

"Don't argue, Temari," Gaara said without looking up. "His plan works best for all of us. And we will contribute to the defense here. Our best chance at killing the maximum number of enemies before they can threaten our village lies in stopping them now before they can advance their plans." The Sand kunoichi was quiet after that.

"When are we going to leave?" Sakura asked.

"Dusk," Shikamaru answered. "Koorikage-sama, is there another way out of this cave?"

"There is," he answered solemnly. "It was meant as an emergency escape tunnel in the event that we were completely overrun. It comes out about a kilometer and a half south of the village, but with how things are right now, it could put you out right in the middle of one of their camps. Aside from exposing you, you would be exposing our only other way out."

"We'll have to go through the village, then," Shikamaru spat. This was going to be very troublesome.

"I could get you out!" A young voice shouted from somewhere behind him.

Daiichi looked up toward the voice and frowned. "Goro, you shouldn't be eavesdropping on conversations. Especially one like this."

"But I can help, Oniisan!" the kid, now visible, wailed. He looked like a miniature version of Kenji with tame hair and a normal-sized nose. He wore no hitae-ate.

"I don't think so," Daiichi said firmly. "Go wait back with the others, and if you don't want me to tell Chichiue you've been listening in on high-profile conversations, you'd better do it yourself."

"Now now," Arima said calmly. "He says he can help. It's possible he may know something. Come here, Goro." The young boy, who couldn't be more than ten, came over nervously, but with a smug look at his older brother.

"What do you know that can help, Goro?" The Koorikage asked once the boy had fully joined them. All nervousness flew from the child's face and he was radiating excitement.

"There's a tunnel that goes from inside the village to way outside it in the forest," he said. "My friends and I found it last year and we play in it. It would go way past where any enemies are. It's not connected to the Hole, though, so we'd have to go up into the village so I can show them where it is."

"Above ground?" Sora asked. "I don't think so. It's not safe up there."

"Come on, Neesan!" Goro wailed. "Aren't you and Tousan and Arima-sama always saying that it's every ninja's duty to do whatever they can to help the village? Huh?" The eldest Sabu daughter seemed to ponder that for a minute, but the plea was answered by Kenji.

"He's got a point, Neechan," the hawk-nosed jounin said. "All right squirt, if it's all right with Koorikage-sama, you can go. But don't tell Chichiue. And I'm going to send Shiro's team with you." The young boy's face lit up, and the next few hours until dark were spent planning the operation.

-

When the time to depart was at hand, a small group had gathered together to see them all off. Shikamaru just wanted to get it over with, but with dangerous missions like this, that never seemed to be possible.

"If anything happens, make sure to get him out of there," Daiichi was saying to Shiro and his teammates, obviously referring to young Goro, who had donned all his gear that Snow cadets were normally not allowed to wear outside of the academy and looking like he'd just been named the next Koorikage. The young chuunin team were all nodding seriously, even though they'd been told that a good dozen times throughout the afternoon.

"Neji-niisan, be careful," Hinata was saying a few paces away from the other exchange.

"And you, Hinata-sama. Remember, if anything happens, you cannot allow them to –"

"I know what I must do, Neji-niisan," the usually demure girl said firmly. "I understand my responsibilities. But I do not plan to be put in such a situation."

"Then I wish you well," Neji said. "And I will see you again." He bowed to her, and then it was time to leave.

"Lead the way, squirt!" Naruto shouted. Shikamaru had no idea whether he'd picked up the nickname from the cadet's older brother, or if he was just being himself. Goro furrowed his eyebrows and scowled at Naruto, but didn't say anything. He and Shiro's team started walking toward the exit from the Hole under Arima's tower, and Shikamaru and his team followed.

"Wait!" came a female voice from behind them. Shikamaru turned and saw Sabu Yukiko running toward them.

"What is it, Yukiko?" Kenji asked.

"I'm coming, too," she said, addressing not just Kenji, but everyone in the group and daring them to contradict her.

"Don't be ridiculous," Daiichi said. "You're still recovering from three broken ribs, no matter how well Hokage-sama healed them."

"I'm fine," she said icily. "And I'm going. I want to protect my little brother." As she said this, her eyes flicked from said little brother to the rest of the group, and Neji was pointedly looking in another direction. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever," he said. How bothersome. "Let's just go, already." And so they were off, before any of Yukiko's siblings had another chance to object.

Aomaru was the first out of the Hole – or at least one of him was. Apparently if one of his clones were killed, the other would be all right, though he would be unable to utilize his bloodline limit for a time while his cells recovered. Shikamaru knew none of them expected an ambush under the Koorikage's tower where three ANBU (or whatever the Snow called their ANBU) were constantly standing guard, but none of them were willing to take any chances with Goro along on the mission.

"It's clear," said the Aomaru still in the exit tunnel with them. "Let's go." They filed out of the Hole, and Aomaru rejoined with himself. Even after having seen it a few times, it was still really weird to watch.

"It's this way, on the south side of the village, near the ice rink," Goro said, leading them out of the tower. That was another thing Shikamaru would never get used to; people in Yukigakure had this weird form of recreation where they would strap metal blades to their feet and slide around on ice. Just bizarre.

Things were mostly quiet as they made their way across the village. They passed several landmarks Shikamaru had come to be familiar with over his time here, and occasionally they'd pass by a scout ninja or two. He was impressed at how adept Goro was at moving stealthily, even though he hadn't graduated yet. Another boon for the education system of the Snow.

As they neared the ice rink, Neji suddenly called for everyone to stop.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked.

"Enemy scouts, over the wall," the Hyuuga said. "It looks like they're done prepping and are beginning to probe into the village. It won't be long before they realize there's nobody up here."

Yukiko cursed, and so did Naruto. Shikamaru joined them in his head. Their one chance at warning the Leaf village was getting out through that tunnel before the first wave of enemies came in, but they were barred off.

"We need to go around," Aomaru said. "I can create a clone as a diversion while you all go though that warehouse across the alley."

"I can do that too, and it won't take anything out of me if I get caught," Naruto said. He formed the seal for _kage bunshin_, and nine clones sprang up. Each one transformed into a member of their group.

"We'll need to synchronize this exactly," Shikamaru said. "Naruto, send your clones on my mark." He didn't even wait for the nod accepting the order before looking to Neji to get the enemies' positions. When it was as good as it was going to get, he gave the word. "Mark."

Nine shadow clones took off, looking for all the world like the group of people he was now standing in. Another couple of seconds…

"Go!" He hissed, and they all made a break for the warehouse. Goro, playing out his first real shinobi mission, looked a strange cross between utterly elated and frightened out of his mind.

The warehouse was large and empty like the rest of the village, and they passed through quickly. There was a small street to dart across to get to the ice rink, which really just looked like a large, frozen pond with stadium seats all around it. Goro was leading them toward the seats at the far end.

-

Yukiko's side ached as she ran. As adamant has she had been before, she really hadn't fully recovered yet, though the Hokage's healing techniques were amazing. She was farther along already than she would have been in a week, otherwise. She didn't know why she'd insisted on coming along; it had been an impulse she couldn't ignore.

Well, that was a lie. She knew very well why she'd been compelled to join this mission, and it went beyond concern for her brother, but that didn't make it any less stupid.

"Look out!" shouted a familiar voice, and before she knew it, Hyuuga Neji was behind her, holding a kunai he'd caught that otherwise would have impaled her neck.

"They found out my clones," Naruto-kun grumbled.

"You should be more careful," Neji admonished her, not turning to face her. His veins were bulging around his eyes the way they did when he was using that technique of his, and he was glaring murder at two ninja with music-note _hitae-ate_, either one of whom could have thrown that kunai.

"Naruto, there's more of them!" The girl called Sakura shouted from near the front of their group, and Yukiko looked in horror as three enemy ninja dropped in front of her little brothers.

"Goro, get behind me!" Shiro yelled. He tried to move to get in front, but Goro had already drawn a kunai.

_No, Goro,_ she pleaded in her head. _Listen to Shiro. Please don't try to fight them._ She didn't know why she couldn't yell, but her voice had seized up.

"Yah!" Her littlest brother shouted, throwing the kunai as hard as he could. It flew straight as an arrow, and missed its target by more than a foot, striking the edge of the stadium under the front row of chairs.

"What was that?" The enemy ninja laughed. "Is that the best they can teach you in this village?" He pulled two kama from his belt with chains connecting them to his back, and hurled them at Goro. Before she, or Shiro, or anyone else could move, the kama had caught him behind the shoulders and were yanked back by the chains, lopping off his arms. Goro screamed louder than she'd ever heard anyone scream. Her heart wrenched, and she drew her sword without thinking. But even as she charged at the Sound ninja, she was beaten to it.

"You bastard!" Shiro cried, and rushed forward, creating two ice clones along the way. Time slowed as she ran as fast as she could despite the pain in her side, and watched her second-youngest brother collide with the Sound ninja. It looked like she was going to lose two brothers in one day, but Naruto appeared out of nowhere and took the guy's head off like it was nothing. She turned at a sound behind her, fearing the worst again, only to see that Neji had already dispatched the two from before and was coming to join her. She put her sword away so she could draw it again when necessary. The draw was her best technique.

"Can you fight?" He asked her. There was something about his voice that was different from usual, but she didn't have time to think about it.

"Of course I can," she answered defiantly. "And even if I couldn't, I'm not about to let these bastards get away with killing my little brother!"

"Your brother will live," he said simply. And before she could ask what he was talking about, he continued. "We must cut our way through this batch of enemies before more arrive. Quickly."

Without even thinking of disobeying, she leapt off in one direction while he leaped in another. She came upon Teiko and Aomaru fending off another pair of Oto-ninja. Coming up behind them, it was all too easy. With one swift motion, her sword was drawn and both enemies lie on the ground in two pieces.

"They must have been chuunin," Teiko said as Yukiko wiped her sword clean on one of the dead ninja's clothes and resheathed it.

"Some of them, surely," Yukiko agreed. "These two, definitely. But I would not be surprised if a few of them are jounin."

"We should move," Aomaru said.

"Agreed."

But by the time they rejoined the others, all the enemies had been defeated, and Sakura was standing up from sitting over Goro. It had been a remarkably quick and decisive battle.

"He's unconscious, but I've managed to slow the bleeding considerably," the pink-haired Leaf ninja said. "If you can get him back to Hokage-sama quickly, he should be all right."

"But his arms…" Yukiko protested. She was actually starting to tear up.

"I don't know if anything can be done about that," Sakura said apologetically, "but at least he'll live."

"He'll never become a shinobi," she whispered to herself. "It was his greatest dream."

"If it is something he desires enough, it is possible, no matter the circumstances against him," Neji said. She had not realized he'd been standing next to her. She hadn't really meant anyone to hear that last part.

Aomaru picked up Goro carefully, following Sakura's instructions to make sure his wounds were covered and slightly raised.

"Get going, then," Shikamaru said.

"But what about you all?" She asked, sniffing back one last sob. "You don't know where the tunnel is; it could take hours to find."

"Oh, yes we do," Shikamaru said, almost smirking a little. His eyes drifted to the kunai still stuck under the chair that Goro had thrown. Surely, he couldn't have…

"That was a brave move your brother made," Shikamaru went on. "He knew he'd probably be attacked and maybe killed but he made sure to do everything he could to finish his mission. He has the makings of a great shinobi." She had to bite back another sob. No matter what they all said, it was impossible to believe her little brother could ever be a shinobi now.

"We need to go if Goro's going to have a chance," Aomaru said to her.

"He's right," Sakura agreed. "He's stable right now, but without more treatment he won't last long. And the longer you wait, the more likely you'll be attacked again." Yukiko finally nodded, and it was time to go.

"We will see you again," Neji said. To all of them, she suspected, but he was looking directly at her. Any other time she would have taken the opportunity to kiss him goodbye and let him think _that _over on the way home. As it was, all she could do was nod again, and smile at him as much as she could manage. It wasn't much.

-

"How did you know the kid was showing us the tunnel, Shikamaru?" Naruto asked as they made their way along it. It was very narrow, and Sakura knew that if Genma or Shizune or Tsunade had come along, they probably wouldn't have been able to move through it very fast.

"Because no one's aim is that bad," Shikamaru said simply over his shoulder. "And no cadet is stupid enough to challenge an enemy ninja of any rank alone, let alone with nothing but a kunai and out in the open. Except maybe you." The last bit seemed like a last minute addition, and surprisingly Naruto didn't blow up at it.

"Heh. You're right, I guess," the blond said instead. "It's a good thing you notice things like that, Shikamaru."

Sakura couldn't take it. "Naruto, that's the exact same sort of thing you would do," she said. "How could you not notice?" Granted, she hadn't picked it up right away either, but she would have quickly enough afterwards, and she'd known as soon as Shikamaru spoke up about what had happened.

"I don't know," Naruto admitted freely, grinning up at her. "I guess I just need more practice at reading into things. Kakashi-sensei always said I wasn't very good at it."

Sakura groaned in exasperation. Nothing got to this guy. How could one of his greatest and most endearing traits also be one of his most annoying?

"We're approaching the exit," Neji announced from the rear. "No nearby enemies, and I estimate our distance from the village at six point four kilometers."

"It'll have to do," Shikamaru said. "When we get there, we're going to have to press as hard as we can. I want to cut at least a day off of what it should take to get to Konoha. Since we don't know exactly what the enemy's plan is, every second counts. They could be attacking already for all we know, but likely a messenger was sent at the onset of the assault on Yukigakure. Even if we assume that a second was sent to overtake the first to bring news of the setback, we still have some catching up to do." He came to a stop below a small hole, and Sakura could see starlight shining down through onto the snow that had fallen into the tunnel.

"There's also a chance we're being pursued," he said gravely. "That attack by the ice rink was by a scouting patrol, and their superiors are going to wonder when they don't come back and investigate. We covered our tracks, but even so, there's always something left to follow for someone who's good enough to find it. We can hope we're better at following trails than them and they won't catch anything that we missed, but hoping for the best can get people killed. Therefore, we will operate under the assumption that we are being followed, and that we have enemies in front of us as well. Until we're inside Konoha's walls, we're to be considered surrounded." Everyone nodded in understanding, and they set off through the trees.

-

It had been a full two days at a grueling pace, but they'd managed to close the gap between themselves and the enemies they now knew for certain were in front of them. Shikamaru still insisted on operating under the assumption that they were being pursued, though no sign of a tailing party had yet been detected. Sakura was clearly exhausted, but she wasn't about to say anything, and Naruto couldn't bring himself to damage her pride by bringing it up. But he could call for a rest.

"Oy, Shikamaru!" He called. Quietly, of course. "We haven't stopped all day and it's past noon. What do you say to five minutes, huh? I'm hungry and I get a stomach ache if I eat while I'm moving." It was true enough, and he had no qualms about shaming himself a tiny bit if it was for Sakura's benefit. As long as she didn't find out about it.

"You're such an idiot," Shikamaru groaned as he came to a stop on a large tree limb. But he did stop.

"Hehe, sorry," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. He reached into his pack and pulled out one of the last onigiri he had left. That was just as well, as they hardly seemed appetizing anymore anyway.

It was a sign of how tired Sakura really was that she didn't berate him for making them stop. But since she'd had to help that Goro kid, she'd started the trip with depleted reserves, and hadn't really had any chance to build them back up. And she probably had the lowest endurance of any of them to begin with. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he ate. She wasn't breathing particularly hard, but she was sitting completely still with her eyes closed as she slowly munched on a ration bar.

"We have pursuers," Neji announced. He'd taken to activating his Byakugan only sporadically, so as not to deplete his chakura completely.

"How close?" Shikamaru asked.

"At their present pace, they will be upon us within six minutes if we do not move, and within fifteen minutes if we resume our prior pace right now."

Shikamaru cursed. "They must be pursuit specialists," he said. "As it stands, we stand a better chance if we stage an ambush here than if we try to run away. They'll catch us anyway, and we'll have had no time to rest or prepare. How many are there, Neji?"

"Eight."

Shikamaru cursed again. "We need to start setting traps now," he said.

"No," Naruto said, having reached a decision. "I'll stay, you guys keep going."

"What?" Sakura said, jerking her head up and in his direction.

"Don't be stupid, Naruto," Shikamaru said. "You can't stop them by yourself."

"Maybe I can't, but if we don't keep going, those guys in front of us are going to get to Konoha before we do. We need as many people as we can manage to stop them, so that means only one person can stay behind. I'll hold these guys off as long as I can."

There was a long pause, and then Shikamaru nodded. "You're right, even though I hate to admit it," he said. "But it should be me staying. I can use _Kagemane no jutsu_ and hold them back."

"Yeah, but what are you gonna do when you can't hold it anymore and Asuma isn't there to save you?" Naruto countered with a grin. "I let you get away with this once before, Shikamaru. It's my turn now. I have the best chance of any of us besides Neji of stopping these guys, and you need his Byakugan. Besides, Ino would never forgive me if we made it back to Konoha without you. You need to get home because there are people there who are waiting for you."

There was a tense pause, and Shikamaru nodded. Naruto let out the breath he'd been holding. If he didn't make it out of this, then there was no way he would've been able to take Sasuke down anyway.

"What about you, Naruto?" Sakura burst out suddenly. Her eyes fierce and her chin was set firm. "What about the people who will care if you don't come back? What am I supposed to do if you get killed because you wouldn't let us help you? Did you ever think of that?"

"Sakura-chan…" he hadn't expected this, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it.

"You say Ino will be upset, but what about me?" she went on. Her eyes still held fire, but were beginning to glisten, but her voice wavered slightly. There was an awkward silence when Naruto couldn't come up with an answer. Then Sakura set her jaw again and looked him straight in the eye. "I'm staying with you," she said finally.

"Sakura-chan…" he started. There was no way he was going to let her stay behind, too. No way.

"Whatever we do, we need to decide now," Neji said, "or our enemies will arrive and decide for us."

"Naruto," Sakura began, her voice steady again, "you know what it's like to risk everything for people important to you. You know what you'd be willing to go through for the person who's more important than anyone." He did. He would and had more than once put his life on the line for Sakura's sake. He was doing it again right now, in a sense. But why would she bring that up?

"Of course I do, Sakura-chan," he said. "But why-?" He saw Neji standing behind her giving him a significant look. He knew what that meant, but he wanted to hear what she was going to say, first.

"Naruto, I need to do that too. If I'm not willing to put my life on the line for those people who are precious to me, then I don't deserve to call myself a ninja any more than you would if you didn't. And…my most important person…is you. If you stay behind now and I don't stay to help, I won't…I couldn't…I couldn't live with myself. Please." She was and pleading with him now, and holding back tears as best she could, but her voice had not wavered again. He was struck dumb. Ever since he'd been a child, he'd dreamed of hearing those words come out of Sakura's mouth. Fate was cruel to have it happen now, but at least if he died, he would die happy. He could feel the beginning of tears in his own eyes as he smiled at her for what could very well be the last time.

"Sakura-chan…arigatou." He nodded almost imperceptibly at Neji, who immediately struck a pressure point on the back of Sakura's neck, rendering her unconscious. He caught her as she slumped forward and hoisted her over his shoulder.

"We'll wake her up once we're far enough away that she can't come back," Neji said. Naruto nodded his thanks.

"After all that, you'd better make it out alive," Shikamaru said to him with a scowl on his face. "Otherwise _she'd_ never forgive _us_ for not letting her stay."

"I'll do my best," Naruto said with a grin. "Hurry up and go."

"Good luck, Naruto," Neji said. And then they left.

-

Katan came to a halt barely ahead of his squad. The enemies they were pursuing had clearly stopped in this same spot only minutes ago. Only one of them appeared to have left, which meant there was an ambush nearby. He laughed to himself. As if three ninja could get the drop on them.

Just then he felt something grab his left ankle. Looking down, he saw a hand reaching out from the limb he was standing on. He prepared to cry out, but another hand came from somewhere to his right and slit his throat with a kunai. He choked on his own blood for a few seconds, and then fell from the tree and saw no more.

-

The seven sound ninja standing in the trees began communicating with each other using hand signals, coordinating how they were going to spring the trap and catch those who had said it. They had noticed immediately of course, that their point man had disappeared.

"He must've gotten caught already," one of them said.

"Fool," said another. "He should have known it was a trap. Why didn't he wait?"

"He did," said a voice none of them could see the source of. "But it didn't do him any good."

"Over there!" said one of the squadmen. He threw a kunai into the trees where the voice had come from, and was hit in the head from behind by another. He fell to the ground dead.

"They've got us surrounded!" The squad leader yelled. "Scatter!" The best thing to do when surrounded by unseen enemies was to not give them one big target. As he sprang from tree to tree, he shouted more orders. "Fan out and bring them down!" The remaining Sound ninja immediately followed those instructions and began searching the area in pairs. This was as close to a textbook situation as any of them had been in since academy training, so theoretically everything should go all right. But theoretically rarely worked in the ninja world.

A minute or so later, shouts rang out from three different directions, all saying the same thing: "They're over here!"

"Shit!" The squad leader cursed. "There's more of them than we thought, or they're using clones! Regroup!" The six of them reconvened where they'd started, spread out enough so as not to be a group target, all breathing hard. They planned strategy with hand signals, and when finished, the squad leader had one final order.

"Shirai, Haitani," he said. "Go on ahead when you get the chance. We can't let that last one escape."

"Can you guys handle the ones here?" the one named Shirai asked.

"Of course we can," the leader snapped. "They've caught us by surprise up until now, but we're on to their game. Wait until they attack again and then go."

"Understood," said the two of them in unison. Just then a large smoke bomb erupted in the middle of the clearing, but the cloud wasn't large enough to envelop all of them.

"They're coming again!" The leader shouted. "Stand ready!" He was one of the few not trapped in the cloud, and so could see the half-dozen enemies making their charge into the smoke.

"They disperse when we kill them!" one of the men shouted. "They're clones!"

"Shit! Find the originals, hurry!"

One of his men performed a jutsu to disperse the smoke, and when it cleared, he saw that only three of them remained. Shirai and Haitani were gone, which meant they were either dead or following their orders. Hopefully the latter.

"We need to take these guys down, now," said the squad leader. "Fan out and lure their attack again, but stay close enough that you can come to another's aid when they do strike." They split again, in an attempt to bring their attackers out in the open. The squad leader himself stayed very close to the initial staging area, trying to watch the other two members of his team to see if any movements were made toward them. Thus it wasn't until he was already landing on the branch that he saw the spiky blond man swing down from the limb above him with arms outstretched – arms that grasped his head and snapped his neck in one motion.

The other two saw their commander fall, and rushed to see if they could help him. When they saw it was too late, they shared a significant look.

"We're outnumbered now," one of them said. "Which means we're as good as dead if we don't get out of here."

"You're half right," said the other. He then pulled out a kunai and stabbed his comrade in the chest. In a puff of smoke he transformed into a blond young man with whisker marks on his cheeks. "The numbers are even." He gave the kunai a sharp upward jerk, and then a hard shove, sending the last Oto-ninja to join his companions on the forest floor. And then Uzumaki Naruto took a few moments to catch his breath before chasing after the one that had gotten away.

-

"I can't believe you did that to me!" Sakura wailed furiously from Neji's back. In order to give the illusion that only one of them had continued on, she had remained there after they woke her up and Neji followed in Shikamaru's footsteps exactly.

"If we hadn't, you would have insisted on staying," Neji explained to her calmly. "With the possibility of Naruto sacrificing himself to save us, the least you could do is fulfill his desire to see you escape alive."

"Besides," Shikamaru said from in front, "If you'd stayed, he would have been worried about you. It would have distracted him." That made her even angrier.

"I'm not helpless, you know!" she shouted. "It's not like I need him to look after me."

"I know that, and so does he," Shikamaru answered. "But he would anyway, and you know that. Besides, however capable you may be, you're not at Naruto's level. Neither am I, for that matter." She knew he was right, but it didn't make her feel any better at all. She was half furious for what they'd done, and half afraid out of her mind for Naruto. There was no way he could handle eight enemy ninja by himself. No way.

"We have one behind us again," Neji announced. She hadn't even noticed him activating his Byakugan, even though she was right next to his face. Fear and loss shot through her like lightning. If one of them was still chasing, that meant…

"Into the canopy!" Shikamaru ordered. He shot up with a powerful leap and Neji followed with her a second later.

"If there's only one of them, it's possible he was sent to keep following our trail and lead the others on while they fought Naruto's ambush," Shikamaru reasoned. Sakura grabbed on to that thought like a lifeline. She had to hope.

"That means our deception was successful, at least," Neji said. He let Sakura down onto one of the thin branches they were sitting on. "Otherwise they would not have risked a single man. They must think he is capable of defeating the lone remaining enemy alone."

"That means he's more than likely a jounin, and could still be dangerous to us," Shikamaru said. Sakura was having a difficult time following the exchange; she was too worried about Naruto. She knew she shouldn't be, that she should be more focused in a crisis, but she just couldn't help it. He had to be okay. He just had to be.

"He's here," Neji said, and a moment later they saw a lone Sound ninja come to a stop almost directly below them in the trees.

"It's not going to take him long to figure out where we went," Shikamaru stated, "so we need to-"

"DROP!"

Sakura didn't even think before obeying Neji's shout, and she dropped down through the trees, landing on a large limb about ten meters away from the enemy they'd just been observing. A loud crash resounded overhead, and she looked up to see the top of the tree where they'd just been falling after her, sliced clean through as with a razor. She saw the reason why shortly after, as Kurowaza Tourou appeared on the limb next to the Sound ninja. He was laughing in a very mocking way.

"I'm surprised you noticed my jutsu in time to dodge," he said derisively, "seeing as you aren't even skilled enough to notice when a quarry has doubled back on you." So he was the one they'd been chasing. What would they have done if they'd caught him?

"They set an ambush for us a while back, Kurowaza-sama," the Sound nin said. "At least two of us were dead when my partner and I left, and he was killed just as we were leaving." This news fueled the hope that was burning in Sakura's heart. If he could kill three of them, maybe there was a chance he could kill all of them.

"Disappointing," Tourou said. "But I should expect nothing more of Oto-nin, I suppose. Orochimaru doesn't train you enough before setting you out on missions." The Sound ninja looked furious, but was apparently too smart to refute someone who could kill him with a gesture.

Sakura heard a slight rustle behind her and remembered what Shikamaru had said about sending a second messenger to overtake the first. Even considering that Tourou must have been the second, the first would still be one chosen for speed rather than combat ability, and judging by the sound she'd just heard and the trail that had been relatively easy to follow, this other messenger was a chuunin at best. She spared a glance at Neji, who still had his Byakugan activated, and knew she was right. She would have to time this perfectly.

"What do you hope to accomplish by coming back to face us?" Shikamaru asked casually. "If you die, you won't be able to carry your message to your companions outside Konoha."

"The risk is very small, you see," Tourou said. "So small in fact, that in this case it is not worth considering." He smiled a wide, frightening smile, and a kunai hit Sakura in the back.

Instantly, the log that had taken her place reverted to its true form and bounced once on the limb she'd been standing on before falling to the forest floor. Flying backwards through the air, she had a matter of seconds to pinpoint the location of the thrower before he recovered. Spotting him behind her, she readied a kunai of her own, and dropped down on him, extending a leg back to hit him in the face, knocking him back, even as she jammed the weapon into his abdomen. He let out a muffled gurgling wail, but that was all he had time for while she brought her other leg up to join the one still near his head, enclosed the pair around his neck, and twisted hard. She was back on her feet and headed towards her teammates before he even finished falling.

When she arrived, all hell had broken loose. It had all started with the kunai, it seemed. Neji was fending off Tourou, while the Sound ninja was jumping around seemingly at random. Seemingly, that is, until she noticed how Shikamaru was moving. So he'd managed to pull off a _Kagemane no jutsu_, even with a shinobi like Kurowaza Tourou standing right there. Maybe he was wrong about not being at Naruto's level.

"Can you buy me a few seconds?" he asked in a strained voice.

"I don't know," came Neji's reply. That was when she noticed that all of the swordsman's movements were attempts at getting to Shikamaru, and Neji was just managing to hold him off. So the Mist nin was aware of what had happened after all. A good thing he hadn't noticed before the technique had taken hold.

Sakura tried to help as she could, firing off some shuriken and kunai, but the legendary swordsman batted them away like flies, and there was no way she could survive even for a few seconds if she got in close to him. She would have to hope Neji could handle him long enough.

Just as she thought that, however, Neji was kicked to the side and Tourou rushed forward and slashed his sword vertically in a move too quick to see…right through Shikamaru. He laughed triumphantly even as Sakura screamed in horror, but even with the limb he'd been standing on severed and falling away, Shikamaru smirked.

"Too late for you," he said, completely unharmed. "Well, too late for your ally, anyway." And then, Sakura watched in awe as Shikamaru fizzled into a silhouette, and then settled as a shadow, while at the same time his shadow, which had captured the other enemy ninja, solidified into his body, holding the Sound ninja in a headlock with a kunai at his neck. "_Kagekawarimi,_ the Shadow-replacement jutsu," Shikamaru announced, and slit his captive's throat. Sakura leaped over to join him, and Neji followed a few seconds later when he managed to get to his feet.

"It's three against one now," Shikamaru said coolly. Sakura knew he had to have a strategy – Shikamaru was never one to bluff, that was Naruto's tactic – but she couldn't fathom what it might be. "Do you still think you can escape alive?"

Tourou looked angry, but he wasn't the type to lose focus due to emotion, so that couldn't be it. But what, then?

"Try to stall me all you want, your little shadow tricks won't work on me," Tourou said. "Especially now that I've seen it already. Honestly, why didn't you go after me first and be left with the weaker one afterwards?"

"I had no chance of capturing you," Shikamaru explained. "The only reason you didn't notice your ally being caught was because I was able to use the tree to approach out of your line of site."

"For one who so readily recognizes my skill, you seem overly confident of victory," Tourou commented. He wasn't angry anymore, but…amused. What on earth was Shikamaru playing at?

"If you go into a battle expecting to lose, you've already lost," Shikamaru quoted from the ninja handbook. "Therefore, it stands to reason that if you go into a battle expecting to win, you've already won. There's a difference between overconfidence and cold logic."

Tourou actually laughed now, and Sakura couldn't blame him. What ridiculous nonsense was this? Was he just trying to delay the inevitable?

"You're too much," the Mist ninja said after his laughter subsided. "Can shinobi as naïve as you truly exist?"

"Everything has to exist somewhere," Shikamaru countered.

"Indeed, otherwise there would be nothing at all," Neji added. So he'd figured out the plan. Whatever it was. As soon as he spoke though, Shikamaru's eye twitched. Had Neji guessed wrong and somehow ruined the plan?

"That's enough, I have things to do," Tourou said. Apparently Shikamaru's inane ramblings had ceased to be amusing. He drew his sword slowly, as if to force them to dwell on it.

"Sakura, Neji, attack!" Shikamaru ordered. Sakura didn't understand, but she obeyed, and unleashed a volley of shuriken while Neji did the same and Shikamaru prepared some kind of jutsu.

"Pitiful!" Tourou said, batting their shuriken away once more and preparing to make the leap that would finish them all.

Only he didn't make that leap. As he was about to jump, his eyes bulged outward and his chest expanded greatly. He began to spin around rapidly as if on a spit, and then his chest burst and he flew forward, sailing past them and crashing into a tree twenty meters beyond, stone dead.

And standing where he had been, hand outstretched and still smoking from the energy exerted, was the most beautiful sight Sakura had ever laid eyes on, with blond spiky hair and whisker marks on his cheeks, wearing a black coat and pants with orange trimmings, a Konoha _hitae-ate_ and one of the biggest grins she'd ever seen. Her heart nearly exploded in her chest.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed. It was all she could get out, but she wanted to say it again and again, to prove to herself that he was really there, that he was really alive and standing there, saving them.

"Sorry I took so long, guys," he said, scratching the back of his head. Even in that pose he was still breathing incredibly hard. He must have pushed himself to the absolute limit to catch up to them. "They kept scattering and regrouping and it was tough to get all of them." Unable to contain herself any longer, she leapt over to him and flung her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. She'd been so afraid she was never going to see him again, it was overwhelming to see him safe and unharmed. Tears leaked out of her eyes even as she laughed and she felt him return the embrace. He was okay. He was okay and he knew and they were going home. That was all she could have ever asked for.

-

"How did you know Naruto was coming?" Neji asked Shikamaru after the reunion celebration had concluded and they were taking some time to rest before setting out again.

"That's a good question," Sakura asked as she swallowed the rest of the ration bar she'd been unable to finish earlier. She was sitting much closer to Naruto than usual – which was close enough – yet fortunately no one had called her on it. She didn't think that they would, after what they'd just gone through, but still she worried.

"I didn't," Shikamaru said simply. "I just played it out hoping that he was."

Sakura nearly choked on her ration bar. That was not the way Shikamaru operated.

Evidently Neji agreed with her, because he indignantly demanded, "You mean you set all our chances on a gamble?"

"That's not like you, Shikamaru," Naruto frowned, opening his eyes from where he was leaning against the trunk of a huge tree, exhausted. "You always have three or four plans ready. And you never count on something if you don't know for sure."

"No matter how skilled at devising strategy you are, you can't win without any pieces," Shikamaru said, sounding for all the world like some great philosopher. "There are times, when you're backed completely into a corner and you have no way out, that you just have to grit your teeth and hope for the best. So I gambled that Naruto had succeeded and would be following us, trying to buy as much time as I could for him to arrive. When Neji started playing along, I knew it was because he could see Naruto and had figured out what I was doing. So that's when I knew that my gamble was a success."

"What would you have done if Naruto hadn't come?" Sakura demanded. Thank all things sacred in the world that hadn't been the case. "Or if you couldn't stall long enough?"

"Well…" Shikamaru shrugged, "I guess we all would've died." Sakura felt her eye twitch.

"Haha!" Naruto just laughed. "I don't know why you were counting on me so much anyway, Shikamaru," he said. "I wasn't any match for that guy either, remember? As it is, I just got a lucky shot."

"That's exactly why I was counting on you, Naruto," Shikamaru said. "The one thing we had that he didn't was knowledge that you might come to help. Clearly even he didn't expect you to overrun the entire Sound squad, no matter how incompetent he thought they were. So that was our only element of surprise, and if we could keep him distracted long enough for you to strike, we'd have him."

"And even if that didn't work," Neji put in, "four on one is better than three. All of us together still might have overpowered him."

"An extra piece never hurts," Shikamaru nodded, continuing his earlier metaphor.

"Well as long as we don't have to rely on any more blind leaps of faith," Sakura said dryly, "we should be able to make it to Konoha in another two days."

"That's true," Shikamaru agreed. "We've made good time, but that fight has worn us out, so two days is a good estimate."

"We should sleep now," Neji said. "I'll take the first watch."

"I'll go next," Naruto said. "And then you guys don't worry about it. As long as I get a little bit of sleep, I'll be fine."

"Naruto…" Sakura tried to protest, but he wouldn't let her.

"You know it's true, Sakura-chan. We've been on the same team for years. Let me have an hour and a half and I can take watch for the rest of the night." She wanted to argue some more, but he really could get by on very little sleep – provided he didn't do it too many times – and she was just too exhausted anyway. So she let him have his way and went to sleep, and when he woke her the next day, the blush on her face when she saw him must have been glowing. Her dreams had been…interesting.

Thanking all kami she could name that he hadn't commented on her blush, Sakura spent the day traveling in relative silence. After what she'd admitted yesterday, it was difficult to move back to normal, casual conversation, and trekking through the woods on an A-rank mission wasn't really the time or place for what needed to be said. So she spoke little to anyone, Naruto least of all, and felt awkward when she did. Thank the kami again he didn't comment on that, either.

Her dreams the next night were less embarrassing, but she found herself feeling simultaneously relieved and disappointed at the fact. Shikamaru wanted to push hard to make it to the village by nightfall, so thankfully there wasn't much chatter and she didn't feel as awkward keeping silent. She noticed Naruto looking at her oddly from time to time, though. She would have to discover what that was all about.

It was nearing twilight when Neji announced the presence of other ninja. For a moment she was frightened that the attack on Konoha had already begun, but he soon added that they were Leaf ninja.

"It is Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba," he said. "They are aware of our presence, and will be upon us momentarily."

Sakura heaved a huge sigh of relief, and stopped to wait on the ground with the others for Kiba and Shino to arrive. It only took about twenty seconds.

"It's you guys!" Kiba declared in his usual boisterous manner. He and Shino dropped into the clearing where they were standing.

"Why have you returned so early?" Shino asked – much more calmly. "And where is Hokage-sama and the other team?"

"Yeah, where are they?" Kiba asked as if just noticing that particular detail. "Why aren't Hinata and the others with you?"

"Things haven't gone exactly to plan," Shikamaru told them. Leave it to him to deliver the understatement of a lifetime.

"What do you mean?" Kiba demanded. There was a fire growing in his eyes. Sakura was beginning to think leaving Hinata back in Yukigakure might not have been the best idea after all.

"The Mist, the Cloud and the Stone have betrayed us," Shikamaru said. "Congruently. And they seem to be allied with Orochimaru as well."

"So…what happened?" Kiba pressed. "Was anyone killed?"

"Yamashiro Aoba is dead, but no other Konoha ninja had been killed or injured by the time we left," Shikamaru answered.

"The siege is still in effect then, correct?" Shino inquired.

"Yes. The village is surrounded, and synchronous attacks were planned against Konoha and Sunagakure as well. We managed to kill the messengers on their way here, but that won't buy us much time."

"You will need to inform the village council of all this when you return, of course," Shino said. "They can send a message to the Sand."

"Of course we're going to do that!" Naruto yelled indignantly. "You don't need to tell us, you know! Besides, what are you guys going to be doing that you can't come with us?"

"We're going after Hinata of course, idiot," Kiba declared. "As soon as we're done talking to you."

"I would advise against that," Neji said. "She was safe when we left, and getting into the village undetected is next to impossible. The council will surely send aid if for no other reason than to extract the Hokage. Wait and go with them."

"We're not waiting an extra two minutes more than we have to," Kiba snarled. "If they send help along, great. They can catch up. We're going."

"You morons!" Naruto shouted. "There's three enemy kage there, plus who knows what else! How do you think you can get in by yourselves?"

"How we intend to enter and indeed whether or not we even succeed is none of your concern, Uzumaki Naruto," Shino said. "But we will go."

"Good luck, then," Shikamaru said. He then handed them a piece of paper. "The coordinates for a tunnel leading into the village are written on that. The enemy has probably found it by now, but even if they have, you'll stand a better chance through there than anywhere else."

"Indeed," Shino said, slipping the paper into his coat pocket. "We depart, then." He leapt into the trees.

"We'll try and get them out, but we probably will need help," Kiba said. "Make sure they don't take to long with it, okay?" He then followed his teammate, and Sakura and the others were left standing watching after them.

"Idiots," Naruto mumbled. She had to admit she kind of agreed with him, though she admired their devotion to Hinata.

"There's nothing we can do about them," Shikamaru said. "We need to get back to the village now and report everything, including the two of them leaving."

He led the way back into the trees, and when they arrived, they went straight to the Hokage's tower, where the council was administrating the village in Tsunade's absence. Upon hearing their report, a state of emergency was declared, all missions cancelled, and all jounin summoned to the tower. By sunset, the Fourth Secret World War had officially begun.

-

-

-

Well, I'm finally done. Ironically, over half of this was written within the past 48 hours. All those story ideas I've been kicking around and rewriting in my head for the last several months finally came together. Geez, _Serenity_? My god it's been a long time. But _Koorikage _is now officially complete and you can now agonize over when I'm going to upload the sequel. Haha!

Mad props again to my prereader SJR, without whom this chapter would have looked like it was "written by George Lucas". As it is, I may have managed Tolkein on a bad day, which isn't really much better. Ah, well.

Glossary below, as always:

Waza – skill

Kuro – black

Tourou – mantis

Daiichi – "Great first son"

Kenji – "Strong second son"

Sora – sky

Sango – coral

Chichiue – respectful paternal term. Equivalent to saying "father" as opposed to "dad".


End file.
